Immortal Beloved
by Emerald72
Summary: Third Multi-Chapter Installment in The Eternity Series. Getting married wasn't supposed to be this difficult. Josef/Mick Slash Beth/Ryder. Mature Audiences Only. Warnings for male/male pairing, adult themes and character death.
1. Prologue

Title: Immortal Beloved (sequel to Rosegarden Funeral of Sores)

Series: The Eternity Series (Third Installment)

Rating: ranges from PG13 to NC17

Pairing: Mick/Josef, Beth/Ryder

Warnings: May contain some drug use, Will contain sexual references and explicit descriptions of male/male pairing

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: "Getting married wasn't supposed to be this difficult"

Please Note: This is the third Multi-Chapter in the "Eternity Series" and follows on from a piece entitled "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores", which currently being reworked and is not yet posted on here.

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**Prologue**

"Just answer me one question", Mick had asked Josef that night in Paris, as they walked together down the Champs Elyses, "why? why are we getting married?"

"Because we love each other and want to spend eternity together?" Josef had answered him in a slightly bemused tone of voice, "why else would we be getting married, Mick?"

"I don't know, just seems a bit strange for us to be getting married" Mick had responded with a slight shrug of his shoulders, "afterall it's not like it's really a case of till death do us part for us"

"You think marriage is only about death, Mick?" Josef had replied back to him, then shook his head and laughed "wow how cynical and nihilistic."

"I didn't mean it like that, Josef. I meant...."

Josef had cut his words off with a smile and a wave of his hand at that point, quickly moving to wrap his arms around Mick's waist and kiss him softly on the side of his face, "I know what you mean, Mick" he had told him gently, "but don't you think that there is more to marriage than that? What about the eternity of immortal love?"

"I would never have taken you for a hopeless romantic, Josef" Mick had joked with him then, prompting Josef to roll his eyes and mutter half sheepishly for Mick to "shut up".

"So tell me again, Josef" Mick asked two months later as they stood opposite one another in the Kitchen back in Salzburg; arms crossed over chests and defiant looks shooting back and forth between then; after yet another argument about some ridiculously trivial point of contension over the wedding plans, "why are we getting married?"

"Because we love each other and want to spend eternity together, Mick" Josef snipped at him bitterly.

"Well Josef", Mick replied looking at him pointedly, "the way we're going at the moment. It really will end up being 'till death do us part'."

And with that Mick turned and stormed out of the room, leaving Josef to throw up his hands and roll his eyes to the heavens, in sheer exasperation, as he stood there and thought to himself darkly,

"Getting married wasn't supposed to be this difficult."


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Mick sat by himself on the lounge, swirling an overly generous shot of blood whiskey around in the glass that dangled loosely from his hand and staring down at the ring that now took pride of place on his left hand.

He remembered back to the night in Paris, when Josef has proposed and he had asked him what the engraving on the ring had said; as they walked together down the Champs Elyse and Mick had questioned Josef on the meaning of marriage for those for whom death do us part did not apply.

"Immortal beloved", Josef had replied and then cracked some joke about not being able to fit, "immortal fairy queen of the damned" on there.

Mick smiled to himself in fond memory of that night then felt his thoughts cloud and darken as he thought back to their most recent argument, just a few scant hours ago.

It had been over something inanely trivial, like they all had been of late, something that really shouldn't have even been worth having a discussion over let alone a full blown shouting match.

"I am _not_ wearing a dress" Josef had snipped at him, as Mick sat at the table in the kitchen reading a copy of bridesmaid's monthly and Josef looked over his shoulder.

"It's not for you, you idiot" Mick had snipped back, rolling his eyes in disbelief and frustration, "you're not going to be a bridesmaid now are you"

"Well I'm not going to be the bride either, Mick" Josef had thrown back in response.

"Why not?" Mick had half teasingly challenged him, "it's not like you've never worn a dress before, Father Lucias"

"Ok, so maybe the lead up to the argument had been over something inanely trivial, but it probably wasn't a good idea to make a joke like that" Mick thought to himself, letting out a reluctant sigh of admittance.

It had all just gone downhill from there. Josef had insisted, or rather ranted, about the difference between dresses and Priest's Cassocks and Mick had done his best to try and placate him by making a joke about black being inappropriate attire for a wedding anyway, which had not gone down too well. Before they knew it they were hurling barbed insults at one another, complete with a full chorus of raised voices and angry snarls, and Mick was demanding to know why they were getting married.

"Hey, you're down here"

Mick turned his head towards the tentative voice and saw Josef approaching, almost catlike in his movements as he padded cautiously towards him.

"Yeah" Mick muttered monosyllabically in response, glancing over at Josef and then looking away; returning to his dark reverie of glass swirling.

"What are you doing?" Josef asked, smiling at Mick hopefully as he took a seat on the couch next to him and wrapped his arms around his neck.

"Having a drink" Mick replied darkly, throwing back a pointedly large gulp of the contents of his glass.

"That can wait 'till later. Put that down" Josef told him matter of factly as he took the glass from Mick's hand and placed it on the table in front of him, then nuzzled his head under Mick's chin and began nipping the skin of his throat very lightly with his fangs; kissing his way along the line of his neck at the same time, "I'm trying to apologise to you, you damn fool"

If there was one thing Josef knew how to do it was give a good apology, and Mick found his rate of breathing quickening almost as fast as he felt his cock twitch and harden, as Josef slid down his body with feline grace and knelt in between his legs.

Slowly undoing the belt and other fastenings on Mick's trousers, he looked up at him with a salacious smile, before releasing Mick's cock from it's material confinements and wrapping his lips around his hardness, working his mouth and tongue expertly over the head and shaft.

Mick gasped at the sensation, letting out a soft snarl of desire and appreciation as Josef's mouth and tongue continued working their way over his erection.

"Shit, Josef" Mick half panted, laughing and shaking his head at the same time; hips undulating in time to Josef's oral administrations, "that's certainly some apology you've decided to give me"

Josef paused for a moment and looked up at Mick, a wicked smile playing over his features, "Oh trust me", he replied salaciously, "I'm just getting started".

"Oh fuck" Mick muttered under his breath, as Josef went back to lashing the attention of his mouth and tongue over his erection; feeling his cock twitch in anticipatory desire at the words Josef had just spoken to him.

Josef reached underneath him with his hands and pulled him forward, positioning Mick's hips just off the edge of the couch to give him better access to his arse. Pausing for a moment to moisten two fingers with some saliva, he then pressed them against the entrance to Mick's passage and gently pushed them inside.

Deep snarls of heightened arousal began emanating from Mick's throat, as Josef's fingers sought out and found their target; continuing to work his mouth and tongue over his erection as he pressed his fingers against Mick's prostate and massaged it with firm even strokes, knowing just the right amount of pressure to apply to send Mick into a near frenzy of desire.

Josef felt Mick's body start to shake, shockwaves of pleasure running along his spine as he neared the point of no return, and quickly stepped up the pace of his pleasuring; pushing him over the edge a few short moments later.

He heard Mick snarl with sheer unbridled pleasure and felt his arm being roughly yanked up towards his mouth, as Mick fell into the orgasmic abyss and sank his fangs sharply into the back of his hand; riding out wave after wave of climactic pleasure as he released himself into Josef's mouth.

Still working his fingers in Mick's arse, Josef smiled triumpantly as a second, third and fourth wave of climax hit Mick in rapid succession just after the first had ended; his fangs sinking deeper into Josef's flesh as he bit into his hand as hard as he could and went into near convulsions of pleasure.

"So? Am I forgiven?" Josef asked Mick with a sly smile a few moments later, after the last pulsations of his repeated climax had died away and he'd given Mick enough time to recover his senses.

"Yeah...you are" Mick replied with a breathless laugh, pulling Josef up onto his lap and wrapping his arms around his neck.

"Mick, I really am sorry you know" Josef told him with quiet sincerity, as he returned Mick's embrace and nuzzled his head under his chin.

"I know", Mick replied, reaching up to stroke the back of Josef's head with his hand, entwining his fingers through his hair, "You have been acting very difficult though lately, Josef" he added, gently chiding him.

"I just want everything to be perfect" Josef responded back to him in a slightly pleading tone of apology.

"And I just want to get married" Mick replied simply, "that's all I really want, just for us to be married. We don't have to turn this into some sort of operatic production"

"I haven't been turning it into some sort of operatic production", Josef began to protest indignantly.

"Yeah, you have Josef" Mick replied, quickly pressing his index finger against Josef's lips and hushing him before he had a chance to finish what he had started to say, "and you need to relax more and stop stressing over every little detail...before you drive the both of us completely insane" he added with a teasing laugh of frustration.

"Yeah, ok" Josef half sheepishly admitted under his breath, as Mick stood up and pulled him to his feet with him, "I need to relax more and not stress over every little detail. Point taken"

"Good" Mick replied with a grateful smile and then took Josef by the hand and began to lead him towards the stairs the stairs to their bedroom.

"Come on" he told him with a wicked smile, as they began mounting the steps "it's your turn."

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"So who was it for?" Josef asked Mick offhandedly as they sat at the kitchen table the following evening sipping their respective glasses of blood.

"Who was what for?" Mick replied.

"The dress you were looking at"

"Beth, of course"

"Beth?" Josef questioned, raising his eyebrows and giving Mick a quizzical look, "What? she's going to be a bridesmaid is she."

The tone in Josef's voice was challenging, with more than a hint of _and why wasn't I consulted on this_ in it and Mick quickly shot a dark warning look over the table at him.

"Josef. Don't start" Mick told him pointedly, letting out a slight huff of frustration at the same time. "Remember what we talked about last night"

"What?" Josef responded indignantly, "I'm just saying, do we need to have a bridesmaid. There's _not_ going to be a bride there after all" he added with more than a touch of sarcasm; hinting at their previous fight.

"No, but we do need witnesses to the Wedding" Mick replied matter of factly, refusing to rise to Josef's bait and risk getting into yet another argument that he really was not in the mood to have.

"Ok then" Josef replied half dismissively, taking a small sip of blood from the glass in his hands, "well, you just could have told me. Alright"

"Alright. I'm sorry" Mick started to say in an apologetic tone of voice, but Josef quickly waved a hand in front of his face and cut him off.

"Besides", he began matter of factly "I need to know what everyone is doing so I can make sure they're dressed properly. We can't have Beth wearing a bright green dress if we're going to be wearing red shirts and black ties. It won't look right"

"No. Of course not, Josef" Mick responded sarcastically and rolled his eyes, "I'm sure our outfits not being properly colour co-ordinated would be a disaster of epic proportions. And who says we're going to be wearing red shirts and black ties anyway" he quickly added.

"I do" Josef directed in response, and then looked over at Mick and smiled happily, "I've already picked out our outfits for us, Mick. Two very nice black single breasted Chamize suits with matching red satin shirts and black ties. You'll look gorgeous in it"

"So let me get this straight, Josef" Mick threw at him over the table, gritting his teeth and crossing his arms over his chest "you expect me to consult you on every possible conceivable little detail about our Wedding" he paused for a moment and shook his head in sheer disbelief, "but it's ok for you to just go right ahead and pick out what I'm going to be wearing and I get no say in it".

"What?" Josef responded, looking more than a little hurt and confused by the tone of Mick's voice and the half defensive half challenging body language he was displaying towards him, "You've always said you're not good at the whole fashion thing and I am, so..." he shrugged and finished the sentence with a quick gesture of his hands to indicate that he had fully expected Mick was going to be completely happy when he had picked out his Wedding suit for him. "By the way" he added; leaning back in his chair and waving a dismissive hand in the air, "I forgot to tell you. The invitations arrive tommorow. One of us will need to be here to pick them up"

"Invitations, Josef? Invitations to where?" Mick shot at him with lashings of more disbelief as he threw his hands in the air in complete exasperation. "We haven't even decided where we're getting married yet"

"Lestat's garden, of course" Josef replied bemusedly, "You don't remember us discussing that. I said 'wouldn't it be romantic for us to get married at Lestat's place seeing as we got together there and it's where I proposed to you'" he quickly reminded Mick, "and you said 'the garden might be nice'"

"Yes. Josef. Exactly." Mick replied, shaking his head in frustration, "I said the garden _might_ be nice. I didn't exactly say 'go ahead and make the arrangements'. What if there was somewhere else a little closer to home that we might have wanted to consider. Did you even think about traveling arrangements for any of our guests. Paris isn't exactly just down the road from here you know".

"But..." Josef started to protest, staring at Mick in wideeyed disbelief; the mere thought of him not being utterly over the moon at the idea of them being married in Lestat's garden never having entered his mind.

"Oh for fucksake, Josef" Mick suddenly snapped at him, as he shot to his feet and glared at him furiously "Look. Why don't you just go ahead and arrange this whole damn wedding and then tell me when and where to show up"

And with that he turned around and stormed out of the room, in a gesture of movement that was becoming all too familiar to both of them.

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"Josef" Mick began tentatively, as he approached him a few hours later; finding him sitting behind the desk in the drawing room upstairs, shuffling papers and pretending to be incredibly preoccupied with something of great importance whilst looking for all the world like a little dark storm cloud with fangs, "I'm sorry."

"Doesn't matter" Josef muttered in response and waved his hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it" he added with a forced smile.

Judging by the quivering tone of his voice, the look of hurt on his face; that he was failing miserably at trying to cover up with one very fake grimace of a smile and the number of torn up tissues lying on the desk in front of him, Mick had to assume that Josef was lying through his teeth at that particular moment. It did matter and he should be worried about it.

"Josef, I'm sorry" he repeated gently, walking over to him behind the desk and taking a seat in his lap; wrapping both arms around Josef's neck and drawing him into an embrace. They stayed together like that for a few moments, breathing in each other's scent and listening to the respective beats of each other's undead hearts; the tone of Josef's a little less audible owing to his lack of proper blood intake for the day, before Josef spoke up in a sorrowful voice and said,

"I though you'd be happy, Mick. I was just trying to make thing's easier on you".

"I know you were" Mick replied with a tender kiss, "you just could have told me about it beforehand. It's my wedding too you know." he paused for a moment and then corrected himself, "it's _our_ wedding, Josef"

"Do you want me to cancel the order on the suits then?" Josef asked him with a melancholy sigh.

"No. I didn't say that" Mick replied, "You've already gone to the trouble of picking them out, I'm sure they'll be just perfect. You do have impeccable taste. Just next time", he added quietly, "tell me before you go ahead and just decide to arrange or do anything. Ok?"

"Yeah, ok" Josef started to respond, but stopped mid word and furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Wait a minute", he said, looking at Mick with a questioning expression, "I thought you didn't want me stressing you out over every little detail of our wedding plans?"

"Josef" Mick replied, a note of exasperation creeping into his voice, "What we're wearing and where we're getting married are not little details. It's not like it's 'what colour are the invitations' I'm talking about"

"Ivory white, matte finish. Dark charcoal, Garamond font face" Josef quickly replied.

"Pardon?"

"The invitations, they're being printed on ivory white matte finish paper. The type setting is Garamond, dark charcoal"

"Sounds very elegant, Josef" Mick teased him gently, "make sure you have one sent to me so I know exactly when and where to show up to this wedding of yours"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Josef suddenly snapped at him defensively, prompting Mick to press a finger to his lips and gesture for him to hush up.

"Josef, I didn't come up here to have another fight about the wedding. Ok"

"Well what did you come up here for, Mick" Josef asked in a darkened tone, a sulking scowl passing over his features.

"This" Mick replied simply and then grabbed Josef's head in his hands and crushed his mouth against his, probing his lips open with his tongue and drawing him in for a deeply passionate kiss.

Josef's initial response was to stiffen slightly and pull away, but the intensity of Mick's passion got the better of him and soon he was returning the kiss with equal amounts of force and desire.

"Josef?" Mick half mumbled into his mouth a few moments later.

"What?" Josef asked, half breathlessly as he broke away and began smothering Mick's neck with hot rabid kisses.

"You shouldn't sulk, it doesn't suit you" Mick replied, fumbling with the buttons on Josef's shirt and running his hands over his chest.

"I wasn't sulking, Mick. I was brooding".

"Oh. Is that what you call it, Josef" Mick responded with a teasing laugh before he got up off his lap and instructed him to "stand up"

"Why? Where are we going?" Josef asked, as he got to his feet and stood facing Mick

"We're not going anywhere" Mick replied with a wicked smile and a hinting raise of an eyebrow, "you're just going to turn around, bend over this desk here and let me fuck you".

Josef didn't need to be told twice, rapidly shedding his clothes, and helping Mick to do the same, he quickly turned around and then felt himself being shoved face forward down onto the desk in front of him.

"Stay there" Mick directed him and then hurriedly retrieved a small tube of lubricant from one of the drawers of the desk. Quickly applying a little of the slippery liquid to the head of his penis and around the entrance to Josef's arse, he then pressed himself against him and entered his passage in one forceful thrust; hearing Josef cry out with a snarl of shock and pleasure as he began to withdraw and then thrust back into him over and over again, gradually building up the pace of his movements until he was eventually gripping onto Josef's hips to give himself more leverage and fucking him at a increasingly frantic pace.

Mick could feel Josef pressing back against him with every thrust of his hard cock into his arse, trying to force him to go as deep as possible inside him as he dug his fingers into the desk beneath him and let out continous vampiric snarls and growls of increasing desire and arousal. He felt the first stirrings of his orgasm building up within hi, as he continued to grip onto Josef's hips and fuck him faster and faster; picking up the pace even more until he was withdrawing and slamming back into him as hard as Josef's body would allow him to go.

"Oh. Fuck. God. Damn" Josef cried out suddenly, the force of his climax almost overwhelming him as he desperately grabbed for Mick's arm and sank his fangs sharply into his flesh; deep growls and half sobbing snarls emanating from deep within him. A few quick thrusts later Mick sailed over the edge with him and went into his own shuddering, snarling cry of release as he bent his head to Josef's neck and bit into the soft skin that he found there.

Waiting for the last pulsations of their respective orgasms to fade away, Mick quickly pulled himself out of Josef and then helped him to the floor; the strength having gone completely from Josef's legs. Lying down next to him, he wrapped his arms around his shoulders and rested his head on his chest; listening closely to the barely audible whispered tones of his undead heart trying to beat without the assistance of blood to fuel it.

"You haven't fed enough today, Josef" Mick said a few moments later, moving up to give Josef a tender kiss and looking at him with gentle concern.

"I'm fine, Mick. Really" Josef replied dismissively, still a little breathless from their recent coupling.

"No. You're not Josef" Mick responded with a still worried look as he traced a finger down the contours of Josef's face and thought how much he loved him, "I can barely hear your heartbeat".

"Mick. Stop fussing" Josef chided him with a small laugh, "I'll have some more blood to drink before we hit the Freezer. I'll be fine, ok. I promise"

He reached up and drew Mick back down towards him, kissing him lovingly as he ran his fingers through his hair and whispered gently in his ear.

"I love you"

"Ditto" Mick whispered back to him as they lay there together, wrapped in each other's embrace, and fell asleep.

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Over the following weeks, Josef's behaviour did not get any better. In fact, as inconceivable as it was to Mick; who had begun to feel at times that he was now living with a complete stranger, it got steadily worse.

First the Wedding invitations arrived with a minor printing flaw, the typesetting off by the barest of millimetres; not something any ordinary person, or Vampire for that matter, would even bother to notice, but Josef certainly did and flew into a rage of torn confetti'd paper and angry Vampiric snarls.

Then it was discovered that the colour on their suit shirts was a mere one eighth of a shade darker than the colour on their pocket kerchiefs. Mick had had to restrain Josef from flying out the door and tearing off at Vamp speed to rip the tailor's head from his body with his bear hands at that little faux pax.

The final straw had come one cold mid week night, when they had stood in the kitchen across from each other, in defiant opposition, and Josef had decided they needed to have a full blown knock down drag out argument over a wedding cake.

"Josef. What the hell are we going to do with a wedding cake" Mick had spluttered in disbelief, when Josef had informed him of the arrangements he had made for one very expensive and very austentacious wedding cake, "we're Vampires. We don't eat. Or have you forgotten that"

"We have to have a wedding cake, Mick" Josef had shot back at him incredulously, "it's traditional"

"Yeah. And so is being married in a church by a priest, Josef" Mick had hurled at him in response and then added sarcastically, "Or don't tell me, you're planning to do the entire ceremony yourself. Will you be reciting Requiem mass before or after we kill each other at the altar"

Josef had taken the opportunity at that moment, to pick Mick up and throw him clear across the room; watching him sail through the air and land with a resounding thud and a sharp crack of his head on the wall opposite, before he realised what he'd done.

"Mick. Mick oh my god. I'm sorry" he had blurted out, the words tumbling out of him a torrent of contrition as he rushed over to where Mick had landed and hurriedly smothered his face with apologetic kisses.

"Just get away from me, Josef" Mick had responded ominously, glaring at him with barely quietened fury as he pushed him aside and scrambled to his feet. He had quickly mounted the stairs, three at a time, and shut himself in the bedroom with a jarring slam of the door, whilst Josef had rushed up after him and practically torn the door of it's hinges; flying across the room to gather Mick up in a tight embrace, still begging his forgiveness and smothering his face with yet more heated, apologetic kisses until Mick finally relented and they had fallen to the floor together in a tangled mess of limbs and fangs and snarling passion.

They had proceeded to make up at least four more times in various parts of the house after that, Josef alternating between repeatedly begging Mick's forgiveness and making contrite declarations of love and promises that he really would be on his best behaviour from now on.

Somehow, even as he clung to Josef's back and listened to the words that were rushing out of him in short breathless little snarls of heated desire and overwhelming emotion; as he withdrew and thrust back into him at a rate borne of desperately contrite passion, Mick still wasn't quite sure if he could believe what Josef was telling him.

Now, one week later, he found himself sitting opposite Beth one dark evening in a dimly lit bar and pouring out his problems over the table at her.

"So how are the wedding plans coming along" she asked matter of factly, casually sipping a glass of scotch whiskey to which she had discretely added a few drops of blood from a small vial in her handbag.

Mick had tried to force a smile and a nonchalant wave of a hand, planning to answer with a completely false cheerful response of "Great, thanks". Instead he found the words sticking in his throat and the smile turning to a grimace as he buried his head in his hands and muttered, "Don't ask".

"That good hey?" she replied, with the raise of an eyebrow and a small wrinkle of her nose.

"He's gone insane" Mick exasperated, making a gesture with his hands to convey his frustration before proceeding to run through a litany of Josef's recent combined antics and near hysterical idiocy over their wedding plans.

"Mick" Beth started to say, in the most understanding tone of voice she could muster, when he had finished venting his frustrations, "this is Josef we're talking about. You know he never does anything by halves. I'm sure he just want's everything to be perfect for you"

"Yeah, and I just want to get married. That's all I care about, not whether or not the typesetting on the invitations is a fraction of a millimetre off centre or the colour of our shirts doesn't matching perfectly with the colour of the pocket kerchiefs on our wedding suits, just the two of us, coming together and being married. That's what's important to me, not a three ring circus or song and dance about the whole damn wedding procedure"

"Have you told Josef this?" Beth asked.

"Yes. Repeatedly as a matter of fact" Mick replied, the tone of his voice still dripping with exasperation, "I've all but gone down on my knees and grovelled at his feet to 'please relax and let's just get married'. The way things are going at the moment though" Mick added defiantly, " I'm about to call the whole thing off".

"You don't mean that, Mick" Beth told him with a knowing smile.

"Don't I?" he replied with far more conviction than what he actually felt.

"No. You don't" Beth responded pointedly, "think about what it would be like if Josef wasn't in your life"

"I don't. I don't think about it. It's not something I ever want to have to consider again, once was bad enough. I couldn't go through a repeat of that" Mick stated with quite sincerity, referring to the time in Paris 50 years ago when he had come close to losing Josef forever.

"Well there you go then. If you can't even think about life without Josef, then you're hardly going to call of the Wedding now are you?"

Mick smiled and shrugged in response then muttered half sheepishly, "I guess so" before he looked at Beth with a slightly lop sided smile of defeat and admitted , "Yeah, ok. You're right, I'm not going to call the Wedding off. I just want him to relax about everything though, before we both end up with grounds for justifiable homicide"

"Do you want me to see if I can get Ryder to have a word to him?" Beth asked with gentle concern.

"Yeah, that'd be great" Mick replied with obvious relief and gratitude, "thank you, Beth. Really I mean that"

"Hey" she replied with a simple smile and quick squeeze of Mick's hand across the table, "what are friends for".

They said their respective goodbyes after that, Beth heading towards the main railway station to catch the next available train back to Cologne and Mick quickly walking in the opposite direction through the streets of Salzburg, back to the house he had shared with Josef for just over 3 decades.

Arriving home he was so lost in his own thoughts and silent reverie regarding exactly what to do about the issue with Josef, that he didn't even notice the small bundle of wrapping that lay on the front doorstep, until he almost literally fell over it. Squatting down and looking at the small swaddling package for a closer inspection, he hissed with a sharp intaken breath of utter dismay and disbelief as he saw exactly what it was and his heart sank to his knees.

"Oh fuck. This is all we need" he dark muttered to himself through gritted teeth, as he carried the squirming, mewling infant inside.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"What's the occasion?" Josef asked with a bemused smile as he watched Mick walk through the door with the tiny bundle of mortality in his arms.

"Josef" Mick blurted in response, staring at him and blinking incredulously for a few moments, before pointedly adding "in all the years you've known me, name one time that I have ever. Ever. Fed off a child"

"Never?" Josef ventured cautiously, looking more confused and bewildered with every passing second as he regarded the wriggling, squirming package in Mick's arms with a mixture of dread and curious fascination.

"Yes. Exactly, Josef. Never. So what makes you think I've suddenly decided to start now?"

"Well maybe the fact that you've just walked in here with that thing in your arms" Josef snipped, pointing a finger at the tiny infant with a sharp gesturing stab, "without offering me a word of explaination, tends to make me the tiniest bit suspicious of your motives, Mick"

'It's a baby, Josef" Mick stated, rolling his eyes and letting out a huffed breath of exasperation.

"I can see that, Mick" Josef replied slowly, gritting his teeth as he began to lose patience, "and we're Vampires. Or have you forgotten that particular little tid bit of information"

"Of course I haven't, Josef"

"Then why have you decided to bring a child into our home, Mick"

"I found it" Mick replied with a matter of fact shrug, as if that was the only explaination he needed to give.

"Why of course you did, Mick" Josef quipped back in response, "and now you can just unfind it." he added with a more serious tone of challenge in his voice, "We cannot have a baby in this house. We're Vampires, Mick. Vampires do not have children. It isn't safe for us to be around them"

"Josef, you're over 400 years old and I'm over a hundred. We're not exactly a pair of rogue fledglings who can't control their appetites"

"Well, that's true" Josef began with a delicious smile playing over his features, "at least not in that regard"

"Trust you to turn a serious conversation into a discussion about sex" Mick spat at him, rolling his eyes in disbelief and annoyance.

"Says the man who decided to crack jokes about blow jobs when I was trying to propose to him" Josef shot back. "Speaking of which. We also have a wedding to plan, or had you forgotten that as well"

"Of course I hadn't forgotten", Mick snapped at him, "How could I? You certainly take it upon yourself to remind me every five damn minutes, Josef"

Seeing the dark look that fell over Josef's face as he spoke those words, Mick immediately wished he could take them back. Now was certainly not the time for them to be having yet another argument about the wedding.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean" he heard Josef growl at him.

"Nothing. Ok, Josef. Nothing. Please let's not fight about this now, we have other more important things to discuss"

"More important than our wedding?" Josef looked at him incredulously then shook his head and regarded Mick sadly, "It's nice to know where your priorities lie, Mick"

"That isn't what I meant, Josef" Mick replied, lowering the tone of his voice to a gentler level to try and defuse the situation before it got out of hand. "You know us being married is just as important to me as it is to you, I've told you that often enough."

"Maybe you should tell me again, Mick" Josef responded, still with sad regard, "Because I seem to have forgotten."

"Josef" Mick began tenderly, pausing to carefully lay the small infant down on the floor next to him before moving over to wrap his arms around Josef's neck and pull him into his embrace; wanting to defuse the situation before it got out of hand, "you know I love you and you know I want us to be married. If you think otherwise then you're an idiot" he teased with a small note of laughter in his voice, "But" he quickly added after that, gesturing his head towards the small bundle on the ground just behind them, "there is something seriously wrong with this situation".

"Gee, you don't say" Josef interrupted snarkily.

"Josef, I'm serious" Mick said, holding him at arms length for a moment and holding his gaze with an expression of deep concern. "Something isn't right. Go and smell that baby"

"I beg your pardon?" Josef blurted, wrinkling his nose in an expression of disgust.

"Josef, the baby is clean. Now just go and do it and tell me what you detect"

Mick waited and watched as Josef hesitated for a moment and then cautiously approached the tiny infant, sniffing the air around it experimentally before crouching down next to it and inhaling it's scent deep into his flaring nostrils.

"Well?" Mick asked

"Drugs" Josef replied, looking at Mick with some bewilderment, "gun metal and" he paused and took another whiff of scent, "money."

"Exactly. You don't think that's more than a little suspicious?"

"Maybe Junior's just starting early," Josef half smirked and then shrugged, not really knowing exactly what to make of the situation and trying to cover up the way his brain reeled in response to a closer look at the child's face, through defensive sarcasm.

"Or maybe" Mick pointed out, "whoever left this child on our doorstep is in serious trouble" he drew in a breath and held Josef's gaze for a moment before adding emphatically, "and I intend to find out why."

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"Miriam" Josef spoke suddenly into the surrounding darkness of the Freezer later that evening.

"Huh, what?" Mick mumbled, still half asleep, in response.

"Miriam, we should call the baby Miriam. I mean we've got to call it something, we can't just keep saying 'the baby' all the time" Josef quickly explained, quite matter of fact.

"Why Miriam?" Mick stifled a yawn and opened his eyes, trying to blink the sleep out of them as he waited for his vampiric vision to adjust to the surrounding blue glow of the Freezer he shared with Josef.

"It was my sister's name" Josef replied with a simple shrug.

"I didn't know you had a sister?" Mick replied, rolling over and raising himself up onto one arm as he stifled another yawn.

"Four brothers and 3 sisters. All dead now of course"

"Well I didn't exactly expect them to still be alive after more than 400 years, Josef" Mick replied with a tiny snort of laughter, "Anyway" he shook his head briefly in a slightly dismissive gesture meant to convey the desire to get the subject at hand back on topic, "Why a girl's name? what if the baby's a boy?"

"It's not, I checked" Josef replied with the same simple matter of fact tone and shrug as before.

"What. When?"

"While you were up here sleeping"

"What else have you been doing while I've been up here asleep, Josef" Mick asked with a note of suspicion creeping into his voice.

"I turned the baby, "Josef deadpanned, "she's downstairs now, quite happily suckling away on a bottle of blood; thought it would make it easier for us to look after her"

"YOU WHAT?" Mick blurted out, suddenly wide awake and making a failed attempt to sit bolt upright; cracking his head on the lid of the freezer in the process.

"I'm joking, you idiot" Josef spluttered with laughter in response, as he pressed the release button on the freezer, "relax"

Waiting for Mick to lie back down again, he moved over closer and draped an arm across his body; resting his head on Mick's chest. "Actually. If you must know" he said, pausing to kiss the side of Mick's face tenderly, "I went to the all night supermarket and picked up some formula and a bag of nappies"

"How very domesticated of you, Josef" Mick quipped in response, before turning his head towards Josef and saying in a more serious tone, "I thought you weren't happy about all of this?"

"I'm not" Josef stated emphatically, before dropping the level of his voice to a more matter of fact tone and adding, "but I get the distinct impression that this is something that is important to you. So fine, I will go along with it. For now" he finished pointedly.

"Thank you" Mick replied gratefully, placing a hand under Josef's chin and guiding his lips towards his; planting a warm kiss of appreciation upon them, "and you're right," he continued "this is important to me. There's something seriously not right here, Josef. Oh I don't mean the whole 'there's a baby living in our house and we're both Vampires scenario" he quickly clarified, "I'm really worried for that child downstair's mother. I have to find her. I have to know what she's gotten herself mixed up in and if she's alright."

"Yes. You do Mick. You do have to find her, because we can't keep that baby with us forever" Josef replied simply before planting his tongue in his cheek and teasingly adding, "By the way, I've also polished your armour and saddled up your white horse. Sir Galahad"

"Oh ha ha, Josef. Very funny"

"Really? Thanks. I thought so" he quipped back in response, before raising his head to Mick's ear and whispering seductively, "I'd almost forgotten how incredibly sexy you are when you're on one of your missions"

"Josh used to say the same thing about Beth"

"Did he?" Josef replied distractedly, kissing his way along Mick's neck as his fingers stroked their way over is chest.

"Josef?" Mick said with a slight snarl in his voice as Josef's hand found it's way down his body and gripped hold of his stiffening cock, "I thought you always said the freezer was too uncomfortable for this."

"It is" Josef replied nonchalantly, releasing his hold on Mick's cock and climbing out of the freezer, "which is why we're going over onto the bed"

He quickly lifted Mick out of the freezer, carrying him over to the bed with ease, and laid him down on the black satin quilt before covering his body with his and crushing his lips against his mouth.

"Mick," he said, breaking away from the kiss for a moment and regarding him with a serious expression, "this situation, with Miriam, it is only temporary", it was a statement not a question.

"Of course it's only temporary, Josef. I don't intend it to be otherwise" Mick replied and then added with a teasing laugh, as he pulled Josef back down towards his waiting lips, "I'm not the one whose just gone ahead and named the baby, now am I"

"Mick, I'm not joking with you" Josef responded, breaking away from the kiss once more and looking at Mick with the same serious regard, "that baby stays with us only as long as it takes you to either find the Mother or make alternative arrangements. Not only are we both Vampires who cannot look after a human child on any sort of permanent basis, we also have a wedding to plan. And I will not have anything interfere with that."

"The wedding is important to me too, Josef" Mick stated with quiet sincerity, reaching up to trace a finger down the side of Josef's face and along his lips, "I wish you'd believe that."

"I know it is, Mick" Josef replied, mirroring Mick's same tone of sincerity; although not entirely managing to make it quite as convincing to his ears as he had hoped, "and I am sorry I've been a little difficult about the whole wedding thing lately"

"A little difficult, Josef" Mick blurted, stifling a splutter of laughter at the same time, "you've been damn near impossible."

"I said I was sorry, Mick" Josef replied defensively, prompting Mick to once more reach up and pull him back down towards his waiting lips.

"Josef" he told him, just before he pressed his mouth against his and probed his lips open with his tongue, "just shut up and fuck me."

"Ok" Josef muttered heatedly in reply, as he returned Mick's kiss with equal passion for a few moments before moving away briefly to fetch a tube of lubricant from the dressing side table drawer next to the bed.

Quickly applying some of the viscous liquid to the necessary areas, he pressed himself against the entrance to Mick's passage and then pushed the full length of himself inside; pausing to reach under Mick's arse with his hands and raise his hips up slightly, adjusting the angle of penetration to give his prostate gland more direct stimulation.

Downstairs the baby, Miriam; as Josef now thought of her, awoke and stirred noisily, revving up her vocal chords in preparation for a full blown screaming session; the sound quickly reaching Mick and Josef's ears.

"Ignore it" Josef commanded as he started fucking Mick with slow langurous strokes.

"I said ignore it" he commanded again, keeping one hand under Mick's arse and bringing the other up to Mick's face; quickly turning his attention back towards him as soon as he saw Mick try and look off in the direction of the sounds that were coming from downstairs.

Mick hesitated for a second and then nodded his agreement; wrapping his arms around Josef's shoulders and digging his nails into the skin of his back as Josef picked up the pace of his thrusts; smiling to himself in triumphant satisfaction as he listened to the panting snarls of pleasure Mick had started to make in response to their coupling.

Mick's panting snarls of pleasure changed to deep growls of vocalised arousal, as Josef stepped up the pace even more and Mick wrapped his legs around his waist and continued to cling to his shoulders; bucking his hips and matching time with Josef's thrusts as he felt the first impending stirrings of orgasm approaching.

"Oh fuck" Mick snarled with final release as he arched his back and felt the first wave of orgasm rush over him, raising his head to Josef's neck and sinking his fangs sharply into the soft flesh there at the same time. The force of Mick's climax, as he bit into Josef even harder and went into near convulsions of pleasure, pushed Josef over the edge with him and he roared his own release in response and sank his own fangs deep into the muscular flesh of Mick's shoulder.

Downstairs, Miriam's whimpers and cries had charged up to continuous screaming, hiccuping wails; the sound reaching both Vampires ears simultaneously as they continued to cling to one another and ride out their respective peaks.

"Shit" Mick muttered in frustration as he felt the last pulsations of climax fade off into the distance and listened to the racket that was coming from below, "I'd better to go check on her.

"Yeah, you had" Josef stated with nonchalant agreement, slipping himself out of Mick's body and quickly rolling to one side to allow him to get up.

"Mick", Josef directed after him, just as Mick reached the door of the bedroom and turned his head back towards him, "this. Is only temporary. You remember that"

"Of course, Josef. Didn't we just discuss this. I've already told you I'm not intending it to be any other way. I'm not that stupid you know," he added with a note of annoyance, pausing to pull one of Josef's silk robes from it's hanger behind the door and quickly wrapping it around his naked body.

"I never said you were, Mick" Josef replied, regarding Mick with tender grace, "but I also know what you're like sometimes when it comes to playing the role of the hero, so yes I do feel the need to remind you of certain" he paused for a moment, searching for the right word, "let's just say 'conditions' regarding this particular situation."

"Fair enough" he heard Mick reply and nodded and smiled in response. "By the way" he told Mick then, "we have a fitting for our Wedding suits tommorow evening at seven, I expect you to be there"

"You know I will be, Josef" Mick responded with a hint of defensive sadness in his voice, as he regarded Josef's expression and realised that in his mind he still didn't quite believe the wedding was as important to Mick as it was to him, "just tell me where I have to be and exactly how to get there"

"There's a notepad with the address and a map of how to get there on the kitchen table downstairs" Josef said, getting up off the bed himself and walking over to give Mick a quick kiss, "I'm heading back to the Freezer to get some more sleep. I'll see you back up here whenever your finished playing fathers and daughters downstairs" he added with more than just a slight note teasing of sarcasm.

"Oh ha ha again, Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and smirked at him in response, before he returned Josef's kiss and told him he, "wouldn't be long" and then turned and headed downstairs.

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"Josef" Mick spoke into the glowing blue light of the Freezer, pressing the lid release button and tapping Josef's shoulder gently to rouse him from his undead sleep, "Josef. come on wake up"

"What? Mick, what time is it?" Josef yawned and stretched as he slowly blinked and fought his way through the veil of sleep.

"It's early", Mick replied apologetically, "but I need you to be up before I'm gone"

"Gone? gone where?"

"Cologne"

"What's in Cologne?" Josef mumbled sleepily in response, stifling another yawn.

"Ryder" Mick replied matter of factly, quickly pulling on a pair of jeans and throwing a shirt over his shoulders; fingers fumbling at the buttons with distracted annoyance as he hurried to finish getting ready, "I rang him last night, just before you came to bed" he explained, still fiddling with the buttons on his shirt with rising frustration.

"Here" Josef said, as he climbed out of the cold receptacle and walked over to Mick, "let me do that"

"Thanks" Mick replied with a soft smile, as Josef's fingers moved deftly over the buttons and he planted a quick kiss of gratitude on his lips.

"There" Josef said once he'd finished, straightening the collar of Mick's shirt at the same time and placing a hand on his chest, "now what's this about Ryder and Cologne"

"He's going to run some checks for me, computer stuff. Try and see if we can't at least put a face to that whoever left that baby on our doorstep"

"Miriam" Josef corrected him matter of factly.

"Yes. Miriam" Mick stifled a snort of laughter in response, "you know for someone who is so insistent that Vampires cannot possibly look after a human child for any length of time, Josef" he said, tongue in cheek as he regarded him with a slight smirk and a half cocked raise of an eyebrow, "you're certainly going out of your way to make sure you _don't_ do anything foolish like become too attached"

"I am merely showing grace and good manners" Josef replied somewhat haughtily, pulling himself up to his full height and regarding Mick with a hint of defensive challenge. "that's not a _thing_ we have downstairs with us, Mick. I think the least we can do is address her by some sort of name whilst she's under our roof"

"Ok." Mick replied hesitantly, flashing a look of bemusement in Josef's direction, "Ok. Ok" he quickly repeated again as Josef held his gaze with steely determination, forcing him to back down.

"Josef?" Mick ventured cautiously, "are you sure you're ok?"

Josef's response wasn't immediately forthcoming. What could he tell Mick? That the child downstairs had the same upturned nose, the same deep set eyes, the same rosy cleft in her chin that his own baby sister had had over 400 years ago; when he was still human and had watched helplessly as she had been cruelly taken from the arms of her family and consigned to the ground, thanks to an unknown plague that had swept through their village, sparing few but the strongest of individuals.

"It's nothing" he muttered distractedly, after a few moments of silent reverie, "wedding jitters" he quickly waved a hand dismissively through the air in front of him and then asked Mick with forced casualness, "So tell me why you need me to be up with you at this ungodly hour?"

"Well you'll need to be awake to look after" he paused and caught himself just in time, "Miriam"

"You're leaving her with me? Mick, you can't. Are you insane" Josef spluttered in protest, "What the hell do I know about taking care of an infant for a day"

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Josef. It's not exactly like you're going to vamp out and drain her, now is it"

"No, but...."

"Josef. You'll be fine, ok" Mick repeated to him, cutting him off before he had a chance to voice any further protest, "Just, whatever you think you should do. Do the opposite" he added with a teasing smile.

"So if I think I should pick her up and cradle her in my arms, I should really nail her to the wall and crucify her? Is that it?" Josef snarked at him in response.

"Perfect" Mick quipped back at him as he wrapped his arms around Josef's neck and gave him a brief kiss.

"I have to go, Cologne is a long drive from here" Mick said with a more tender tone of voice, as he pulled Josef closer to him and pressed his lips against his in a slow, deep kiss, "I love you" he whispered to him, hearing Josef's whispered response of "ditto" just before he reluctantly broke the embrace and started to move away towards the open bedroom door.

"Mick?" Josef called out after him "don't forget we have an appointment tonight at seven," he reminded.

"I won't, Josef. I'll see you there. At. Seven pm" Mick stated emphatically before he turned away one last time and headed downstairs and out the door.

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Mick sat behind the wheel of Josef's Ferrari, foot planted to the floor and watching the speedometer climb higher and higher as he raced along the main highway towards Cologne. He needed to make this trip in record time if he was going to do what he needed to do at Ryder's and make it back to Salzburg in time for the wedding suit fitting he was supposed to be attending with Josef that evening.

"Josef", Mick thought to himself, his mind drifting towards visions of his partner in unlife, "Something's not right, it's not just the wedding, it's...", he racked his brain for a few moments, trying to figure out exactly what it was that was bothering Josef. The wedding, having a baby under the same roof with two Vampires, something Mick had or hadn't done, all of the above?.

He shook his head and gripped the steering wheel harder, forcing the thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrating on the road ahead of him. Four and a half hours later he was pulling into the parking space outside of Ryder's house and pressing the button on the Intercom to be let inside.

"Mick" Ryder greeted him happily as he opened the door and motioned for Mick to come inside, "good to see you. How's Josef?"

"Good to see you too Ryder, Josef's fine thanks" Mick replied.

"Is he? That's not what I heard, Mick" Ryder said pointedly, raising an eyebrow and flashing him a _'don't lie to me Mick St John'_ expression. "Actually, according to Beth, your exact words were, he's gone insane".

"Yeah, well" Mick waved a hand dismissively, "I didn't come here to talk about Josef. He's fine, we'll work it out"

"You always do don't you, Mick" Ryder replied with quiet simplicity, "it's called being in love. You sure you don't want me to have a word to him for you though?"

"No Ryder, it's ok. Really. But thanks anyway. I thought about it after Beth's offer, but I think this is something we just need to sort out ourselves" he couldn't quiet explain his change of mind, he had been keen on the idea of Ryder having a word to Josef about his recent behaviour beforehand, but now something just seemed different, something told him that whatever was bothering Josef he would talk to Mick about it and Mick alone. "I just have to be patient with him" he added, more to himself than Ryder"

"Well the offer's there if you change your mind" Ryder replied with a matter of fact smile, "Now. What brings you here exactly Mick, you said something about needing my computer tracking expertise." he said as he lead Mick down the hallway towards the room where he kept his array of hardware.

"I need you to help me locate someone" Mick told him, pulling up a seat next to Ryder as he powered up the main computer and quickly filling him in on recent occurences.

"Wait. What?" Ryder spluttered when Mick had finished bringing up to date on the situation with the baby that Josef had so thoughtfully chosen to name, Miriam. "Are you serious? You've got a human child living under the same roof as two Vampires?"

"Well I know it's a little unorthodox, Ryder...."

"Unorthodox?" Ryder interrupted in disbelief, "Mick, it's practically unheard of. We just don't do that sort of thing, you should know that" he chided.

"Yeah. I get that. That's pretty much what Josef's argument was as well..."

"I don't blame him"

"Anyway" Mick continued looking at Ryder pointedly, "it's an unusual circumstance. I certainly didn't ask for the child to be left on our doorstep now did I? But now that it's happened..."

"Now that it's happened you plan on charging in like a knight in shining armour and saving the day" Ryder finished for him, regarding Mick with a crossed arm teasing expression.

"Yeah, something like that" Mick muttered under his breath, then shot Ryder a determined look and said, a little more abruptly than he had intended, "Can you help me or not?"

"Of course I can" Ryder replied, matching Mick's same abrupt tone. "Just tell me what information you've got for me to work off of"

"Here", Mick handed him a small computer chip with an apologetic smile, "it's the video storage chip from our security system. The person I assume is the child's mother appears at" he paused and handed Ryder a piece of paper with the exact details written down on it, "this date and timestamp. Trouble is" he continued, "there's no clear shot of her face"

"That's fine, I can run a few filters over the image and see if I can clear it up a bit for you. I can also tap into the main network for the security cameras you've got mounted opposite your place. See what I can come up with there as well. Then I'll run some facial recognition programs I've got and see if we can't put a name to whoever's face it is"

"That'd be great" Mick said, placing a grateful hand on Ryder's shoulder as Ryder set to work, clicking and tapping away at the mouse and keyboard in front of him. "How long will it take?"

"Hard to say, Mick. I could have the information for you in the next five minutes or it could take five hours" Ryder replied distractedly, his concentration locked on the computer in front of him.

"I don't have five hours. I have to be back in Salzburg by seven pm, we're being fitted for our wedding suits" he explained quickly, unable to supress a smile when he mentioned the words 'wedding suit'.

"How lovely for you" Ryder replied with cheeky aplomb, "You'd better let me get on with this then."

An hour later, Ryder leant back in his seat and stretched then placed his hands behind his head and looked at Mick with a triumphant smile.

"You've found her? Who is she" Mick asked, quickly turning his attention to the display on the computer screen.

"Read for yourself" Ryder told him and got up so that Mick could take centre seat in front of the numerous screens of information he had bought up for him. "I can print you out a copy of all this as well"

"That'd be good, thanks Ryder" Mick replied, then locked his attention on the volume of information and data on the identity of Miriam's mother, laid out on the screen in front of him.

Several hours past. Hours in which Mick continued reading and rereading the information he now had at hand with wrapt interest and focus, completely losing track of time.

"Mick? What time did you say you had to be back in Salzburg?" he heard Ryder prompting him.

"Seven pm. Why?"

"It's four pm now"

"SHIT!" Mick exclaimed loudly, leaping up and knocking the chair he was sitting on over at the same time.

_"Josef is going to kill me"_, he thought to himself anxiously, as he hurriedly gathered up the information Ryder had printed for him and practically fled out the door.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"You're late," Josef greeted Mick darkly, regarding him with a grim expression of cold fury as he walked through the door of the Tailor's, exactly one hour and fifteen minutes after he had promised Josef he would be at the appointment.

"I know, Josef. Ok. I know" Mick moved quickly to try and placate him, "I'm sorry. I lost track of time."

"You lost track of time?" Josef spat at him and then repeated the words with an incredulous laugh, "You lost track of time. What, no 'the car broke down' or 'I was attacked by a band of marauding thieves and had to fight my way out of danger'. Just 'I lost track of time'."

"Josef, I said I was-"

"Sorry, Mick? Yes I heard you" Josef seethed, cutting Mick's words off, "I also heard you make some pathetic excuse about losing track of time"

"Josef-"

"Don't. Josef. Me, Mick" Josef snarled, his voice beginning to rise with anger, "All you had to do was make sure you were at this appointment by seven p.m"

"Mr Kostan, please" the tailor stepped forward, hands held up in a gesture pleading for calm. "We can reschedule, it's no trouble. Honestly."

Josef stood there for a moment, clenching and unclenching his fists as he continued to regard Mick furiously and heard him plead with him to, "Please, let's not do this now. Not here. Not in public".

"Ok." he said finally, addressing the tailor, as he took a few deep breaths and pushed the ball of anger welling up inside him back down, "reschedule the appointment and call me with a new time and date on the number I gave you".

With that he turned and walked out the door, leaving Mick to hurriedly mutter another apology to the tailor and run out after him.

"Josef" Mick called out after him, as he stormed off up the street, "Josef. For fucksake, wait. The car's just here, I can drive us home."

"I prefer to walk" he snapped in response, not bothering to stop or turn around.

"Ok" Mick replied, finally catching up with him and falling into an uncomfortable step alongside, "I'll walk with you then."

"Suit yourself"

They walked together in relative silence after that, Mick trying to make conversation only the once; asking Josef how his day with Miriam had been and if he thought it was a good idea to leave her alone in the house by herself, and Josef doing his level best to pretend he hadn't heard a word that Mick had said. Arriving home, Josef quickly unlocked the door to their house and then flounced inside; not bothering to check if Mick was behind him or not, before he gave the door a sharp backwards kick and almost slammed it shut in Mick's face.

Catching the door just in time, Mick followed Josef inside and approached him carefully,

"Josef, I am sorry. Really, I am. Ok" he said gently, reaching out and placing a tentative hand on Josef's arm at the same time.

That was all it took, before Mick even knew what was happening he had been kicked clear across the room and Josef was descending on him in a dark cloud of snarling fangs and fury.

"All you had to do was make sure you were at that damn appointment on time, Mick" he began to rage, gripping a hand around Mick's throat and slamming his head back against the wall behind him "That's all you had to do, and you couldn't even manage to do that. Do you even want to get married, Mick? Do you even want to be with me anymore,"

"Josef? What the hell?" Mick quickly shot back at him in response, struggling to release Josef's grip on his throat at the same time "I miss one appointment and you jump to the conclusion that I don't want to be with you anymore. What the fuck's gotten into you? I love you, you know that"

"If you loved me you wouldn't have left me here alone with her all day, Mick" Josef shouted in his face and then dropped his hand from Mick's throat and stepped back, shaken at what he'd just said.

"Alone with who, Josef? Miriam?"

Mick stared at Josef incredulously for a moment and then took a hesitant step forward, reaching out his hand towards him as he had done before and bracing himself for another attack at the same time. When he was certain none would be forthcoming he quickly moved to wrap an arm around Josef's shoulder and drew him towards him; pulling him into his body and holding him tightly.

"Josef, please" he whispered to him "you have to tell me what is going on."

Mick could feel the tension in Josef's body, the way his muscles seemed to be coiled tight like springs and his arms were held stiffly by his side; as he stood there and refused to return Mick's embrace, carrying on some sort of personal inner struggle to bring his emotions back under some semblance of control.

"It's nothing, I'm fine" Josed said with forced nonchalance, after a few moments had passed; pulling himself away from Mick's arms and turning his back on him.

"No, Josef. You're not" Mick replied with concern, trying to reach out a hand towards him once again; his efforts rewarded by a snarl and a flash of fangs, as Josef batted his hand away and warned him to, "Back off, Mick"

"Ok" Mick responded, dropping his hand to his side and trying to keep his tone and body language as neutral as possible, "I'll back off, if that's what you want. I won't touch you and I won't come anywhere near you, but I'm not going to go away until you tell me what it is that is really bothering you"

"It's nothing" Josef tried to protest, but Mick quickly counteracted his feigned indifference before he had a chance to say anything further.

"It's not nothing and we both know that. You just kicked me clear across the room and then practically throttled me, slammed my head against the wall and started screaming some crap about my not wanting to be with you anymore. All for what? Nothing? I don't think so, Josef" Mick said firmly, holding Josef's gaze with an expression that said _'go on, I dare you to tell me different, Josef, but I won't believe you even if you do',_ " and don't tell me it's just pre wedding nerves either" he added, "there's something else"

"Mick, please. Just. Leave it. I don't want to talk about it."

"Well you're going to talk about it, Josef. Whether you want to or not. I'm worried about you for fucksake, you're completely losing the plot lately," Mick responded, harsher than what he had intended to.

"I know, I'm sorry, Mick-"

"Don't just be sorry all the time, Josef" Mick pleaded with him; dropping the tone of his voice to a level which indicated deep concern, rather than the harsh tone of frustration he had used previously, "just tell me what's going on, tell me what's bothering you. Please"

Despite his previous promise to do what Josef has asked and_ 'back off' _Mick moved quickly after that, covering the distance between them in one rapid fluid motion and gripping Josef's face with his hands, as he repeated his plea for him to, "Please, tell me what's wrong," with earnest.

"This is about Miriam, isn't it. There's something about that baby that's really getting to you." his words were more of a statement, as he searched Josef's face for some sign, some hint, of what was troubling him and found his answer.

"Yeah" Josef said finally, letting out a reluctant sigh of breath and reaching up to take hold of one of Mick's hands; pressing the palm of it against his lips, "Yeah. There is."

He hesitated for a moment, then, still holding onto Mick's hand, he started to lead him towards the front door with the simple instruction to,

"Come with me".

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"So where exactly are we going?" Mick asked when they reached the Ferrari that had been left parked out the front of the Tailor's.

"The storage shed" Josef replied offhandedly, climbing into the driver's seat of the car and unlocking the passenger side door for Mick.

Mick quickly searched his mind for what could possibly be in the storage shed that had anything to do with what was troubling Josef. As far as he was aware it was just a collection of assorted furniture and bric a brac, they had amassed over the decades, that didn't fit into their current living arrangements, but were still too good to just be gotten rid of. Most of it had already been sold off, the rest was gathering dust in a small storage facility they had hired when they first moved to Salzburg. He glanced over at Josef, sitting tense and upright in his seat, eyes focused straight ahead and hands clenched tight on the steering wheel, and decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to question him on the subject. Instead he placed a hand gently on Josef's leg and smiled over at him as reassuringly as he could, feeling Josef's hand slip into his and his fingers entwine around his own as he did so.

A few minutes later they were pulling up to the front of a large square brick single storey construction and climbing out of the car. Mick watched as Josef made his way over to a small electronic keypad, situated just to one side of the entrance into the building, and typed in a series of numbers; his hand visibly shaking as he did so. Walking over to him, Mick wrapped his arms around Josef's waist and held him for a moment, as Josef leant his head back against Mick's and closed his eyes, silently revelling in the comfort of Mick's embrace.

"Come on" he said finally, reluctantly disentangling Mick's arms from around his body, "Let's go inside."

Stepping through the door into the dim concrete interior, Mick waited for his vampiric sight to adjust quickly to the low levels of light available and found himself transported back in time by the jumbled menagerie of boxes and other items that lined the walls and stood stacked at various heights around the room. There in one corner stood the large Tiffany inspired leadlight floor lamp that had once stood in the hallway of a house they had rented, for a brief time, in Hagen, in another an ornate black cabinet, made of ebony wood, that had once graced their living room when they had lived together in a large residence on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland. Against another wall was the strange wrought iron sculputure, of what exactly neither one of them had ever actually worked out, that Josef had insisted was the height of derigeur modern art sculpture and purchased for a small fortune, only to get it home and decide he absolutely loathed the piece afterall. Next to that stood a pile of paintings, stacked one against the other, of various styles and periods of art, some of which Mick was vaguely aware were worth a lot of money to serious collectors who could afford to buy them, just infront of those was a box filled with an assortment of old glass bottles, of various shapes and sizes, that had once contained the finest of french perfumed oils, left over from a period of their lives that Mick now jokingly thought of as 'Josef's olfactory obsession phase'.

All around him, as he leant against one of the walls, where there was a clear space for him to do so, and surveyed the room in front of him, were the sights and smells of fifty years of an immortal life shared with Josef. Suddenly feeling very overwhelmed by the flood of memories, Mick slumped down onto the hard cushions of an old velvet brocade sofa they had bought together in an auction of fine period furniture pieces in Paris two decades ago, and took a moment to try and clear his head from the assault of nostalgia; as he watched Josef make his way over to a small space between two piles of boxes against the wall opposite, where he crouched down and pried out two loose bricks, then reach into a small cavity in the wall and pull out a small gold gold locket carefully wrapped in a piece of old cloth.

"Here", he said, as he walked over to Mick and handed it to Mick, "open it."

Mick carefully pried open the locket and looked down at the small painting inside of it.

"Josef", he said, in near disbelief, as he studied the tiny image, "this looks almost exactly like -"

" - like the baby who is now living under our roof? Yes Mick, I know it does" he replied, retrieving the locket from Mick's outstretched hand and hastily wrapping it back in it's cloth, before shoving it into the pocket of his pants.

"Well?" who is she, Mick had been about to say, but Josef, preempting the question, cut him off.

"My sister" he sighed, taking a seat next to Mick and rubbing his hands over his face, before he took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Mick the story of his baby sisters life and cruel death more than four centuries ago.

_The year was 1625, a year before Josef had taken holy orders and 6 months before Miriam had succumbed to the plague that had swept through their village. Miriam's birth had been a difficult one and in the subsequent months after the event, two days of hard labour followed by a dose of puerperal fever had left their Mother bedbound and too weak to properly look after for the child herself, full responsibility for the care of his newborn sister had fallen squarely on Josef's shoulders. His father, a travelling salesman who was not averse to the company of several other women, was rarely at home. Two of his older brothers were already in the ground, one the victim of an unfortunate misadventure with a bottle of alcohol and a sword, the other succumbing to scarlet fever as an infant. The other brothers had married and moved away soon after and out of his surviving sisters, the youngest, before Miriam, had been stillborn, neither one was capable of caring for an infant owing to their shared fondness for consuming alcohol in large quantities. Josef, already a man of twenty and working as an assistant for the local village carpenter, was the only one still left who was willing or able to bare the burden. It was no easy task, but he adored and doted on his baby sister and did the best he could for her with what little time and resources he had available to him._

The winter of that year was particular harsh, several people in the village succumbing to the various illnesses that the bitter cold bought with it and food stocks made scarce by the frosts that attacked the crops and left the villagers without the ability to feed their livestock, let alone themselves, but the spring that followed bought with it something far worse. As the snow and ice of winter melted away and the villagers began to breathe a sigh of relief at the coming of the warmer weather and the chance to plant new crops, death, in the form of a plague that killed with a ferocity that defied description, descended on the small community.

His mother and two sisters, their bodies already weakened by illness or alcoholism, were amongst the first to die, followed by their closest neighbours wife and two of his youngest sons, the Village Carpenter that he worked for's entire family, the blacksmith's eldest and youngest daughters, both of the baker's elderly parent's and on and on it went. Soon there was nobody left who either didn't know, or hadn't personally witnessed, someone who had been struck down and succumbed to the terrible disease. Miriam was one the of the final victim's that spring, her tiny body shaking with pain as her body erupted in sores and pustules and she coughed and spat blood, Josef looking on helplessly as he sat by her cribside fortwo days and two nights and watched the life drain out of her.

"I joined the Domincan order shortly after that", Josef told Mick then, "I thought if I could just understand God, then I could understand why he had allowed Miriam to die so cruelly and somehow it would make what happened acceptable. Five years later I was no closer to understanding God or having any of my questions suitably answered, so when Gregor came along and dangled the promise of 'ultimate knowledge' in my face, naturally I jumped at the chance. The rest, as they say, is history."

"Josef?" Mick asked incredulously, gripping his head in his hands and turning his face towards his, when Josef had finished telling him the story and he had had time to absorb it, "why on earth didn't you tell me any of this before."

"I don't speak about my life as a human, Mick. You should know that" Josef replied quietly, as he rested his forehead against Mick's and struggled to bring the tidal wave of emotions running through him under control, "I've been a Vampire for centuries now, the mortal part of my life no longer holds any relevance for me. Or so I thought" he quickly added, with a deep sigh.

"Can't run from the past forever, Josef." Mick began softly, as he wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him into an embrace, "You really should have told me about this, I've been your partner for the past five decades and there's still so much of yourself that you haven't shared with me."

"Because, like I just told you, it's not relevant" Josef replied, as he pressed his lips againt Mick's mouth and began to fumble desperately with the buttons on his shirt.

"Or so you though, Josef" Mick replied pointedly, half mumbling his respond into Josef's mouth as he responded to his kiss.

"Yes, or so I thought" Josef responded back to him distractedly, probing Mick's mouth open with his tongue, as he deepened the kiss and continued undoing the buttons of his shirt.

"Mick, please" Josef pleaded with him a moment later, after Mick had broken the embrace and held him at arms length, looking at him questioningly, "right now I just need to feel connected to something."

Mick hesitated for another brief moment, before quickly nodding his understanding and pulling Josef back towards him, crushing his mouth against his as they fell to the floor in a tangle of fangs and limbs, smothering each other's faces and necks with snarling kisses, as they both clawed almost desperately at the various buttons and fastenings of their material accoutrements and rapidly shed their clothes.

"What are you looking for?" Josef panted, as Mick broke away from their pre coupling ritual to start ratting through boxes.

"Lubricant," Mick muttered his distracted reply, as he chewed on his bottom lip and furrowed his brow, hurriedly scanning the room, trying to remember if and when he had some anything that could be used for lubrication.

"The box in front of the paintings, Mick" Josef reminded him, "some of the bottles in that should still contain some oil, just use that. Or use spit, or nothing or I don't care" he added, with a note of rising frustration, half begging"I just need you to fuck me, please. Before I lose my grounding completely", he thought to himself quietly.

Hastily grabbing one of the bottles, that still contained some of it's contents, out of the box Josef had indicated to him, Mick quickly returned to his side and poured a small amount of the oil over himself and then worked some of it into the crack of Josef's arse, just before Josef reached up and grabbed him around the neck and pulled him back down on top of him. Positioning himself against his entrance Mick pushed past the inital resistance and plunged the full length of himself into Josef's body, then gradually began a slow steady rhythm of thrust and withdraw, as Josef wrapped his legs around Mick's waist and dug his heels into his backside, spurring him on.

"Faster", he whispered a single desperate command in Mick's ear, arching his back and letting out a snarl of pleasure as Mick obeyed his instructions and his hips rose to meet every hard thrust of Mick's cock into his arse.

Clinging on to Mick's neck he continued to whisper soft snarling commands of 'faster', 'harder' in his ear, feeling the first stirrings of impending orgasm rising up within him, as Mick continued to obey his instructions and increased the pace of his pelvic movements to an ever increasingly frantic level.

Moments later, Mick felt Josef's body tense beneath him as he slipped past the point of no return and let out a single snarling roar of release. Sinking his fangs into Mick's neck and biting sharply into the soft flesh there, Josef fell into a rhythm of half sobbing snarls and convulsions of pleasure and pulled Mick over the edge with him; feeling his fangs pierce the flesh just above his collarbone, as Mick spun headlong into a shuddering, snarling climax of his own.

When it was over and the last residual pulses of climax had died away, Mick gently pulled himself out of Josef's passage and rolled over to lie next to him.

"I love you, Josef Kostan. Don't you ever forget that" he spoke earnestly, as he wrapped his arms around Josef's neck and nuzzled his head under his chin. "And everything about you is relevant to me, even the stuff you don't think is" he added a few moments later, propping himself up on one elbow and regarding Josef's face with an expression of abiding love and sincerity.

"Come on" he said then, as he stood up and quickly gathered up his clothes that were strewn over the floor and redressed himself, "Get dressed, we need to go home. I think you really need to see the information Ryder found on Miriam's mother".

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"Well? What do you think?" Mick asked when they had arrived home and he had given Josef enough time to read through the information Ryder had amassed for him.

"Purple"

"What?" Mick shook his head and looked confused at Josef's strange response, which had nothing of anything to do with what he had just asked him.

"Beth's dress, it should be purple. Purple goes nicely with red. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, great-"

"-and the invitations. I think I'll redesign them, cancel that initial order. We never did really work out exactly where we were going to get married. Did we?"

"No, we didn't," Mick tried to suppress the rising sense of annoyance at Josef's evasion of the question at hand. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that it was probably to be expected, after what Josef had just finished reading, "But what do you think of the information Ryder found? You don't think it's more than a slight coincidence that the woman we assume is Miriam's mother is Irish?"

"A coincidence? Yes." Josef stated, trying to the tone of his voice casual and offhanded, "and that's all it is"

Mick thought of asking Josef if he was sure, although the look in Josef's eyes and the tone of his voice already answered that question for him. Josef wasn't sure it was just a coincidence, as a matter of fact deep down he knew it wasn't and Mick could sense that. He decided not to push the issue.

Upstairs Miriam stirred and stretched and let out a small cry, which quickly increased to an ear shattering scream. Josef flinched once, briefly, at the sound and then pretended he hadn't heard it. Mick wouldn't have been at all surprised if that had been the way he had responded to Miriam's cries earlier as well, indeed, judging by the way Josef was reacting now, Mick had no problem believing that Miriam had screamed on and off all day and Josef had merely sat there and done his level best to ignore her.

"I'll go" Mick muttered offhandedly and watched as Josef stood up and walked over to the cabinet where they stored a few bottles of liquor and poured himself a generous shot of Scotch, adding a few drops of blood from a half empty bottle on the table behind him. He hesitated for a moment, before turning around to give Mick a brief nod and taking a seat back on the lounge, throwing back the drink in his hand in one quick shot as he stared at the wall in front of him and continued pretending he couldn't hear the commotion coming from upstairs.

Mick walked over and placed a comforting hand on Josef's shoulder for a moment, before he turned and headed upstairs. Finding Miriam obviously in a distressed state, wet and hungry, he picked her up and carried her back downstairs.

"Josef, come here" he called to him from the kitchen, trying to keep his voice as even as he could, laying Miriam down on the table and watching her kick and scream, her little face wet with tears and bundled up as she wailed.

"Josef" he repeated, a little firmer this time, "could you come here for a moment, please."  
Reluctantly getting up from his seat, Josef joined Mick in the kitchen and stood at the furthest end of the table, away from Miriam.

"Josef" Mick said, pointing to the small infant on the table in front of him, as Josef stared ahead and refused to look, "this is not your sister." Not giving Josef a chance to respond, he quickly carried on, "Now I'm sorry for what happened when you were still human, Josef and I'm sorry that having this baby in our house is bringing back some bad memories for you, but I have to go out again tomorrow to see Ryder and I need to know that I can leave Miriam with you and that you'll be capable of looking after her" Stepping back from the table he challenged Josef gently to "look at me" and then instructed him simply to "change and feed her".

He watched as Josef hesitated for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and nodded his acquiesce.

"Thank you" he told him softly, reaching out and giving his arm a quick reassuring squeeze as Josef brushed past him and started preparing a bottle with the formula he had bought the previous night. "What I don't understand though" he said then, watching Josef as he set about changing Miriam and tried to keep his eyes averted from her as much as possible, "is why you had trouble doing this today? You managed fine when I was asleep the other day, didn't you"

"Like you said, Mick" Josef told him, picking Miriam up from the table and placing the teat end of a bottle filled with formula in her mouth, "the past catches up with you eventually"

"And what about your past, Josef?" Mick asked "Has that caught up with you?"

Josef pretended he didn't know what Mick meant and Mick went to fetch the sheets of information he'd handed to him earlier from the table in the lounge room.

"O'Dwyer" he said, showing Josef the name on one of the pieces of paper he held in his hand "it's certainly a very Irish sounding name. Kostan isn't an Irish name, is it Josef?"

"No, it isn't" Josef replied matter of factly and shifted Miriam over to his right shoulder.

"It suits you, in a weird sort of way" Mick smiled at him, "Have you ever wondered about it? Us having kids I mean."

Josef rolled his eyes and gave a tiny snort of laughter, "Well Mick, if I ever manage to get you pregnant I'm sure there'll be a lot of people wondering about it. Like the entire medical science community for a start and probably the Church as well, seeing as I'm sure they'd want to record such a miracle" he replied sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant, Josef" Mick huffed in response. "I meant what sort of parents we'd make"

"Bad ones Mick, we're Vampires remember?"

"I know that, Josef" Mick replied with a dismissive wave of a hand, "I just meant…oh look it doesn't matter what I meant, we're getting off topic. What was your last name when you were still human" he asked him, rewording the question from before more directly.

Josef looked at Mick for a moment and then walked over and handed Miriam into his arms.

"O'Dwyer" he said flatly, averting his eyes from Mick's. "Put her to bed for the night" he instructed him then, "I'm going to the freezer".


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"So we're back to this again are we, Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and huffed the following morning, in response to Josef's sudden declaration that he was changing the entire design of their wedding suits.

"The colour is wrong, the material is wrong and I don't like the cut of the jackets or the pants" he had declared, screwing up the piece of paper he held in his hands, with the original designs he had approved of before, and bouncing it over the table; as he stood there in the kitchen and threw his hands up in the air in a gesture of complete exasperation.

Mick watched on, pressing his fist to his mouth to stifle the laughter that was threatening to burst out of his mouth at any moment, certain that to laugh at Josef at this point in time would probably not be the best idea. When Josef placed one hand on an angled hip, cocked his head and demanded to know exactly "what's so funny, Mick?"; however, Mick lost his composure and had to take a seat to stop himself from falling over as he doubled up with laughter. He could almost hear Josef fuming just off to one side, as he spluttered and struggled to bring himself back under control.

"I'm sorry", he said finally, wiping the tears from his eyes as he took a couple of deep breaths and choked back another laughing fit, "I'm sorry, really. You just have no idea how much of an absolute queen you look. Seriously, should I call traffic control? Because if you flap your arms around any more you're liable to take off"

Josef glanced down at the position of his body and quickly adjusted his stance to a more neutral pose, rolling his eyes and hissing "Oh shut up, Mick" at the same time.

"I'm sorry," Mick repeated, a little more contritely this time as he stood and walked over to Josef and wrapped his arms around his waist, kissing him gently on the side of the face before pulling him in to his embrace. "The suits are fine, Josef. The material is fine, the colour is fine, the cut is fine, everything about them is fine, but if you need something to distract yourself at the moment, then that's fine too."

"I don't need to distract myself from anything, Mick" Josef was about to protest, but decided he was too weary to make any sort of an argument against Mick's words, responding instead with a simple, "thank you."

"So have you got any ideas, then?" Mick questioned him, "About the suits I mean"

"A few" Josef nodded in response, "I'm meeting with the Tailor this afternoon to discuss them"

"Josef" Mick blurted incredulously in response, "you can't. I have to go to Ryder's today, remember? I mentioned it last night. I need you to stay here and look after Miriam."

"I'll take her with me", Josef replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"Josef-"Mick started to protest, but Josef raised a hand to stop him.

"Mick, please. I can't stay here alone in the house with Miriam, not for the entire day," he said, his expression half pleading with Mick for understanding, "I either take her with me when I got out, or you'll have to take her with you to Cologne to visit Ryder. Besides that I've already booked the appointment this morning."  
"Josef, we still don't know exactly who is after this baby or her mother-"

"I know that Mick" Josef interrupted him once more, "That's why it's obviously safer for her to travel a short distance with me than spend hours travelling with you across the other side of the country. I can take care of myself, Mick, and Miriam" he added, looking at Mick and waiting for some sort of response or acknowledgement.

"Ok." Mick said finally, after a few moment's hesitation, "just please be careful though, Josef, alright?"

"I will be, Mick. You know I will be. Aren't I always?" Josef replied gently, leaning in to give Mick a quick, grateful kiss before announcing he was going to have a shower and get dressed and turning to go.

"No Josef, not always" Mick called out after him, prompting Josef to wave back over his shoulder dismissively. "That's what I'm worried about" he finished, muttering to himself under his breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hi Mick, come on in" Ryder greeted him at the door, several hours later when Mick had arrived in Cologne. "How are you?" he asked over his shoulder as he lead Mick down the hallway and into the computer room, "and how's Josef?"

"I'm fine, Josef is-"he trailed off, unsure of exactly how to explain how Josef was.

"That good hey?" Ryder replied with a look of concern, as he sat down at the desk in front of a large computer display screen and spun his chair around to face Mick, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly" he replied, a little too abruptly. Softening his tone he smiled at Ryder and added, "I can't"

"Fair enough, Mick. The offer's there though", Ryder responded with a casual shrug of the shoulders, as he turned back to face the screen in front of him and asked, "So what have you got for me this time?"

"The woman you helped me track the other day," Mick began, handing Ryder a piece of paper with several key details written on it, "I need you to run a check and see if she's left the country and if not where is she at the moment. Can you do that?"

"Sure, I can run facial recognition software against the closed circuit security systems at the Airports and Train Stations and check to see if she's made any purchases recently as well, that may tell us if she's booked into a hotel at least. There are a few more things I can try as well, give me a few hours to get this all done though, Mick"

"Take your time, I don't have to be anywhere in a hurry" Mick replied, taking a seat on the small armchair against the wall just behind Ryder and making himself comfortable, "and I really need to find this woman" he added emphatically.

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Back in Salzburg, Josef donned his black Fedora hat and sunglasses, wrapped a squirming Miriam up inside his jacket and stepped outside into the light of day. Moving quickly through the streets and alleyways that lined his route, he kept his head down and his wits about him, holding Miriam protectively as he made his way to the appointment with the Tailor.

"Good afternoon Mr Kostan" the tailor greeted him warmly at the door to his shop, then paused and regarded the bundle in Josef's arms with a look of surprised curiosity.

"Good afternoon Reinhardt" Josef returned the greeting, quickly adding an explanation of "just helping out a friend" when he saw the questioning look on the tailor's face.

"Of course" the tailor nodding and smiled in response, "Please, come in" He motioned for Josef to step inside and then lead him over to the table against the far side wall of the shop, gesturing for him to take a seat. "What seems to be the problem with the design of the suits, Mr Kostan?" he asked, when Josef had carefully laid Miriam down on the chair next to him and pulled up a seat at the table, alongside the tailor, "I thought you were happy with them?"

"I was, I mean I am" Josef shrugged in response and opened the book of original design sketches that Reinhardt, the tailor, has placed in front of him, "I just want to make a few adjustments" he explained distractedly, waving a hand dismissively as he pulled the bundle of sketches towards himself and picked up the pencil that lay in front of him.

"As you wish, Mr Kostan" the tailor smiled politely and pulled his chair a little closer in as Josef hurriedly sketched a rough drawing of his ideas. The slight changes he was making to the original designs, tapering the cut of the pants slightly, adjusting the line of the jackets, were certainly an improvement and Reinhardt nodded his approval and told him, "You should have been a fashion designer"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Josef snapped in response, still feeling slightly defensive over Mick's earlier comments about him acting like a queen.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…I didn't mean…I…I didn't mean to imply anything, Mr Kostan" the tailor stammered.

"Imply? Imply what exactly?" Josef challenged him.

"Well, about your sexuality Mr Kostan" he replied, hurriedly adding "If I made be so bold as to say so"

"What about my sexuality, Reinhardt" Josef replied almost haughtily, folding his arms and regarding the tailor with continued challenge, "I'm not gay, if that was your implication"

"But you and Mr St John?" the tailor questioned with some bewilderment, a look of confusion crossing his face.

Josef saw the look on Reinhardt's face and decided to cut him some slack, after all, he figured, the tailor wasn't aware that he was a Vampire. It was perfectly reasonable that under the circumstances, certain assumptions were going to be made about his relationship with Mick; he was marrying the guy after all.

"-do not choose to place any such labels on ourselves or the nature of our relationship" he explained matter of factly, uncrossing his arms and smiling politely.

Reinhardt nodded his understanding and returned a polite smile of his own, before clearing his throat and changing the subject. "So what colour do you wish for the shirts now, Mr Kostan?" he asked.

"The same, Reinhardt," Josef replied, "I'd just like the shade to be a little darker"

"More like a wine colour then?"

"More like the colour of blood" Josef replied, allowing the slightest hint of a grin to play over his features as he enjoyed his little private joke, forgetting, for the moment, any thoughts or memories of his sister or his former life as a mortal, that had been playing on his mind previously.

"Hmmm, an unusual choice" the tailor replied nonchalantly, flicking through a book of material swatches on the table in front of him, "you're the customer though, Mr Kostan. Here, what about this then" he pointed to a piece that most closely matched what could be considered a shade of blood red.

"Perfect" Josef nodded and smiled his approval. "When can you have the new designs finalised for me?" he asked, as he stood and bent down to pick Miriam up, indicating that it was time he was going.

"Give me a week, I'll send your sketches off to my pattern maker and get started straight away. I'll need you and Mr St John to come in to be properly measured and fitted before I begin any sort of actual cutting of material though"

"Of course, I'll speak to Mick this evening, I'm sure we can arrange a mutually suitable time in the next few days. _And hopefully this time, he won't miss the appointment playing Private Eye_" he added silently to himself, even though, as he cradled the tiny infant in his arms and wrapped his jacket around her protectively, he understood, more than anyone, the necessity of tracking Miriam's mother down.

Extending one arm somewhat awkwardly, as he held Miriam with the other, he said his final goodbyes to Reinhardt and then stepped back outside to make his way home, moving through the streets with his head down and his senses on full alert as he had done before. Reaching the front door of the house, after a few short tense minutes of hurried walking as he made his way from the tailor's rooms back home again, he allowed himself to breathe a small sigh of relief as he shifted Miriam across to one shoulder and placed the key in the lock, preparing to turn the handle on the door and let himself inside when the a lilting Irish voice drifted up from behind him and said,

"Father"

He froze, one hand gripping the handle of the door mid turn as he cradled the infant in his arms protectively towards his body and sniffed the air around him, noting that whoever it was behind him was mortal.

"Father Luke" the voice repeated, adding the English form of the name he had been ordained with when he had joined the Ordo Praedictorum.

"It is you, isn't it" the curvaceous blonde female, with sparkling bright green eyes and impish features, said knowingly as he turned to face her and prepared to offer a dismissive protest of _"I think you must have me mistaken for someone else"._

The words caught in his throat as he stared at the woman standing on the lower doorstep in front of him and thought to himself, with a slight inner laugh of disbelief "At least Mick can stop trying to track her down now", then shook his head and blinked, as to check that the vision in front of him was real. Quickly moving to try and regain his equilibrium, he looked over her shoulder, sweeping the background behind her with his Vampire senses to make sure there was no one, mortal or otherwise, who might be there waiting for the opportune time to attack and then turned the handle on the door.

"I think you'd better come in, Katherine O'Dwyer" he told the woman standing in front of him, forcing a polite smile as he fought back a reel of emotions and memories and held the door open, motioning for her to step inside.

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"I recognised you from your portrait" Josef heard Katherine O'Dwyer telling him, after he had ushered her inside and indicated she should take a seat on the lounge as he sat on the armchair just opposite her and perched somewhat nervously on the edge of the seat.

"What portrait?" he asked somewhat hesitantly, still not quite sure what to make of the situation or how much, if anything, Katherine new about him.

"I take it you recognised me from the myriad of news reports and magazine clippings on myself and my associates" she replied casually, as she reached into the small clutch purse she was carrying and drew out a well worn photograph.

Josef nodded and mumbled a distracted response of "yes" as he took the picture from her proffered fingers and tried, unsuccessfully, to hide the look of shock that flickered over his features as he looked at the photograph of a very old painting that had been done of himself, when he was still human, dressed in the robes of a seventeenth century Priest of the Dominican Order of Preachers.

"An uncanny resemblance-"he started to say, forcing a polite smile as he placed the picture face down on the table in front of him.

"-more than an uncanny resemblance, Father" Katherine interrupted him, "that is you, isn't it?"

"My name" Josef replied, with barely contained frustration, "is Josef-"

"-O'Dwyer" Katherine finished his sentence for him once again, "I know it is, I've researched the family history"

"Kostan" Josef corrected her matter of factly, still trying to hide his increasing nervousness at Katherine's presence and her apparent knowledge of his former life as a mortal. "Where exactly did you get that picture from?" he asked then, attempting to keep the tone of his voice conversational, although he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"It hangs on the wall in my Grandmother's kitchen, has done for as long as I can remember" she replied simply and reached into her purse to draw out another photograph, handing it to Josef with a polite smile and an explanation of "Your brother's house. He lived there with his wife after you disappeared from the Church"

_"I didn't even know he'd married."_ Josef almost said, but caught himself just in time and handed the picture back to Katherine after giving it a cursory glance, saying with more than a note of challenge, "If that is indeed my brother's house and that picture of the Priest that allegedly hangs on the wall of my brother's house is of me, then how do you explain that I'm still alive. The painting in the first photograph looks to be centuries old and judging by the style of that house you've just shown me, I'd say the same could be said for it. So tell me, how do you suppose I'm still alive if I'm as old as that" he sat back in the chair and smiled at her almost triumphantly then stared wide eyed in complete surprise when, without missing a beat she looked him square in the eye and said,

"That's easy, because you're a Vampire".

"How the hell-"

"Weren't expecting that, were you Fa-, I mean Josef" Katherine laughed merrily "You're not the first Vampire I've encountered though, not in my line of business"

"I didn't know Vampires were part of the Irish Republican Army" Josef threw at her, only half sarcastically.

'They're not, but we do have certain, shall we say criminal associations in our group. Funding has to come from somewhere after all and the IRA isn't exactly legitimate, despite what Sinn Fein would have people believe. So that is you in the picture then, isn't it" she said then and waited for Josef to give some sort of response.

"Yes it is" he replied finally, then stood up and announced to no one in particular, "I think I need a drink"

"I realise this must come as a something of a shock to you, Fa- sorry I mean Josef Kostan-" Katherine began, but found herself cut off by a spluttering burst of laughter and Josef's quipping reply of,

"No my dear, anal sex without lubrication is a shock this is…this is" he quickly poured a generous amount of Scotch into a tumbler and drained it on one gulp, unable to find the words to fully express exactly how much of a shock having his past arrive on his doorstep and speak to him actually was.

This time it was Katherine's turn to look surprised at Josef's use of the words 'anal sex', "The other man that lives here with you then, he's your-"she ventured cautiously.

"My partner, yes" Josef completed the question and answered it for her.

"Is he a Vampire like you then?" she asked, looking at Josef curiously.

"What he is and who he is, is none of your business" Josef replied firmly, implying by the tone of his voice and his shift of body language to a more defensive closed position that the subject of Mick was not up for discussion.

"Your protective of him, aren't you?" Katherine responded gently.

"Very"

"I know what that's like" she smiled and looked over at the tiny infant lying at the foot of the lounge where Josef had placed her earlier.

"I think it's time you started answering some of my questions now" Josef began to tell her, following the line of her gaze down towards the baby he thought of as Miriam, but found his words cut off by the sound of Mick's key rattling in the lock and Mick himself stepping through the front door.

"Josef, Josef" he called out urgently as he walked into the lounge room, "She hasn't left Salzburg, Ryder checked all of the outgoing flights, trains and buses, and she's still in the city somewhere. She's-"he stopped dead in his tracks as Katherine O'Dwyer turned around in her seat to face him, "She's right here in our lounge room" he finished slowly, looking from Katherine to Josef and back again, waiting for someone to offer him some sort of explanation.

"Mick" Josef tried to say matter of factly, although the quiver in his voice belied is true feelings, as he walked over to Mick and placed one arm around his shoulder, "meet my several generations removed niece. I believe we both have some questions for her"

"Yes, yes I think we do" Mick replied with a brief nod of his head, taking a seat in the armchair where Josef had been sitting before and looking pointedly at the woman who had just been introduced to him as a human relation of Josef's.

"Oh this should be good, I'm all ears" he laughed and sat back in the chair with his arms crossed, awaiting Katherine's response.

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"Where exactly would you like me to begin?" Katherine asked Mick graciously as she leant forward in her seat and regarded him with a simple smile.

"The beginning is usually a good place" Mick laughed in response and looked up at Josef, standing just off to one side looking decidedly pale faced and white knuckled. He smiled at him gently and gestured for him to take a seat on the end of the couch just next to where he sat, trying to convey the unspoken sentiment that whatever it was, whatever was happening, they would get through it together as they had always done.

Katherine couldn't help but notice the moment of quite trust and tenderness that passed between them and a soft smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, even as she furrowed her brow in confusion, prompting Mick to ask her if there was "anything wrong".

"No, nothing wrong" she replied hesitantly, "it's just that", she paused, trying to find the right words for what she was trying to say, "it's just that, the Josef O'Dwyer I know of is a Priest as well as a Vampire. It's just a little disconcerting for me to see him looking at another man in that way"

"In what way" Josef suddenly snapped at her darkly, "like I've been in love with him for longer than you've been alive" he sneered "The Church didn't quite manage to neuter me entirely you know"

"I never said it did-"she tried to say but found herself cut off by Josef's sharp challenge of,

"And how would you have me look at the man who's been my constant companion for the past fifty odd years" he continued on hurriedly, forgetting for the moment that he hadn't actually intended to reveal Mick as being a Vampire like himself, "I suppose you'd think it more appropriate if I gazed upon him as if he were a sinner and rained fire and brimstone down on his head. Well sorry to disappoint you", he finished with a triumphant snort, "I haven't fed into the crap that the Church feeds people for centuries now".

"But you did, once" Katherine replied simply and reached for her purse once more, pulling out a length of well worn Rosary beads and small silver crucifix that she carefully dropped into Josef's hand with the words, "I believe this belonged to you"

Mick looked on with concern seeing what little colour there was in Josef's face drain completely away. He reached out quickly to try and steady him only to be brushed aside; as Josef let the rosary and crucifix slip from his fingers onto the floor and rose to his feet somewhat shakily, muttering under his breath, "I think I need another drink".

"Josef" Mick said gently, getting up and walking over to place a steadying hand on the bottle of Scotch he was trying unsuccessfully to pour himself a drink from, guiding the rim of the bottle over the tumbler and holding it in place as he helped fill the glass with a generous measure of the dark liquor, "drink that and go upstairs. I'll handle this"

"I'm sorry" he heard Katherine say politely, as Josef quickly threw back his head and drained the contents of the glass in his hand in one hurried gulp, before placing it back down with a sharp resounding tap of crystal on wood, "I'm forgetting my manners, I should have offered both of you a drink by now"

She rolled up the sleeve of her shirt and extended her arm out towards them, in a clear invitation of exactly what she was offering and Mick shook his head in a distracted gesture of refusal, keeping his attention focused on Josef and trying to gauge his reaction to Katherine's outstretched arm and the blood that flowed in the veins beneath her skin. Far too late, he made a grab for him, intent on holding him back and preventing him from doing anything rash, as he saw the dark look of anger, mixed with the pain of being forced to remember a past he'd tried so hard to forget, flood across Josef's face and his eyes flashed to ice cold blue. In the time it took Mick to even partially lift a hand, Josef has already let out a Vampiric snarl and covered the distance between himself and Katherine in one fluid and inhuman movement, grabbing her arm roughly and sinking his fangs sharply into her flesh. He had no real intention of feeding from her, despite the way he began sucking at her wrist, drawing draughts of blood into his mouth which he swallowed in loud repeated gulps, as he growled and dug his fangs into her arm even deeper. He was trying to punish her, to hurt her physically as she had done to him emotionally when she decided to waltz into his life and reopen old wounds he'd long thought healed or at least roughly bandaged over and forgotten about. Mick sensed this and quickly moved to take hold of Katherine's arm with one hand as he very gently but firmly prised Josef's mouth and fangs away from her, eliciting a snarl of protest, before he had a chance to do anything that Mick knew he was going to regret later on.

"Well at least she won't mistake me for a man of the cloth again in a hurry" Josef smirked at her, as Mick carefully caught the drips of blood that were hanging from the corner of his mouth with a finger and then held his face in his hands, pressing his forehead against his as he repeated to him in a whisper, "Josef, please just go upstairs. I will handle this".

"No thank you, Mick" he stated with cold indifference, pushing his hands away from his face then softening when he saw the look of concern that had furrowed Mick's brow, "I'd like to hear what Katherine has to say for herself as well" he explained in a far gentler tone of voice, leaning in to give Mick a quick kiss on the lips before the tiny infant laying behind him stirred fitfully and began to cry, prompting Josef to flinch momentarily and then pick her up, cradling her over his shoulder as he took a seat back on the couch next to Katherine and challenged her to,

"Start talking"

"Can I have my baby first please" she asked in a tiny voice, the words muffled by her arm as she pressed her lips to the wound Josef's fangs had created and tried to stem the flow of blood.

"Oh so now she's your baby" Josef hissed at her in response, "she certainly wasn't your baby when you decided to just abandon her on the doorstep of two Vampires.

"I did it to protect her-"Katherine started to say, but Josef raised a hand and shot a dark look at her, silencing any further protests.

One of whom" he continued "you may have thought was your dear long lost Uncle Josef, who's image of false saintliness hung on your Grandmother's wall for all those years, returned from the dead, but at the end of the day you don't know me and you don't know what I am capable of."

"Oh I'm beginning to get some idea, Uncle" she replied in slightly mocking tones, pressing the small handkerchief that Mick had handed to her with a brief nod and tightlipped smile against the small wounds on her arm, "but like I told you before, you're not the first Vampire I've encountered" she added tauntingly, "and many of them are nowhere near as gentle as you when they're feeding"

"Alright, that's enough" Mick snapped suddenly, quickly moving to try and defuse the situation as he plucked the baby from Josef's arms and laid her down in her mother's lap, then pulled Josef to his feet and instructed him to, "go upstairs and wait for me, you're not helping."

Josef hesitated for a moment, his fists clenched and his mouth set in a grimace of challenge, before he let out a soft sigh of defeat and nodded his agreement, then turned and began to walk away without saying another word to either of them.

"I've upset him, haven't I?" Katherine said apologetically, as she watched Josef mount the stairs with a distracted and downcast pall over his features.

"Yes, you have" Mick replied darkly, gritting his teeth and taking a seat back in the armchair opposite her sending a firm look in her direction.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just that I'm so used to dealing with thugs and brutes and having to play stupid mind games with them to gain the upper hand, "she tried to explain, choosing her words carefully as she smiled a soft smile of regret and glanced over towards the staircase that lead up to the bedroom where Josef now lay with his eyes closed trying to quell the tide of emotions that washed over him as he listened to the conversation that drifted up from downstairs, "that I tend to revert to type, even when I am in the presence of someone who is a gentleman"

"A gentleman," Mick laughed and shook his head in response, "well I suppose that's one way of describing him, although I hardly think he was being very gentle with you before" he added, pointing at the wounds on her arm. "You're lucky he didn't seriously hurt you"

"I suppose I am" Katherine replied with a simple shrug, "but I knew he wouldn't have. He's not a monster, I can tell. I've dealt with monsters Mr-" she paused, realising she didn't actually know Mick's full name.

"St John"

"Mr St John" she continued with a thankful smile, "and he certainly doesn't strike me as being one, even with those inhuman eyes and sharp fangs of his" she added with a cheeky wink, eliciting another laugh from Mick before he looked at her and said with quiet sincerity,

"No, no he's not"

"Have the two of you really been together for fifty years?" she asked then, smiling fondly as she thought of her own Grandparents, only one of whom was still alive, and their own 40 years of wedded bliss.

"Yes, we have" Mick responded with a polite nod.

Katherine couldn't help but notice the way Mick's face had lit up, even as he'd tried to keep his response polite and matter of fact and she smiled at him once more and asked, "Do you think you'll be together for another fifty years?"

"Well we're getting married," Mick replied with a note of laugher in his voice." So yes, or at least I would hope so"

"Well congratulations to the both of you then" Katherine responded warmly, "and I don't think you have any worries about being together for another hundred years" she added merrily, "he loves you, that much should be obvious to anyone"

"As I do him" Mick stated simply, then folded his arms over his chest and sat back in the chair, regarding Katherine with a determined look as he told her, "We're not here to discuss my relationship with Josef though, are we?"

"No, no we're not" Katherine shook her head briefly in response then heard Mick saying to her "So tell me about these monsters you've encountered". Pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts, she took a deep breath and began to talk.

"So what do you want us to do about it?" she heard Josef ask her quietly, after he had rejoined them downstairs, somewhat calmer than he had been before although Mick could still see the rage of emotions he was struggling against just below the surface, and Katherine had finished telling Mick of her involvement with the IRA.

How her future husband had recruited her from the local Catholic Sunday School at an impressionable age, how they had both believed wholeheartedly in the cause and the rightness of a unified Ireland, how they had pushed back each and every moral doubt they had when carrying out various acts of what might be considered minor domestic terrorism, such as vandalising the houses of those who dared to oppose them by covering them with spray painted IRA slogans and papering their doors and windows with pro IRA leaflets or setting off small homemade bombs under the bonnets of British soldier's cars rendering the vehicles a complete write off, because the means justified the end.

How she had stood back and watched with growing concern as the group she had once proudly been apart of, had followed with unquestioning loyalty, became increasingly corrupted by power, throwing it's collective hat in with a seemingly never ending parade of thugs, criminals and other shady underworld characters with the excuse that it was all just part of raising funds that they could use to help fight for the cause. How she had kept her concerns to herself, not even daring to share them with her own husband, partly out of loyalty, mostly out of fear for her own safety and that of her unborn child as she found herself pregnant and being drawn further into a dark world that bore little resemblance to the early days of just and self-righteous protests at what she had come to consider as the "unfairness of British invasion".

How she had continued to go along with the group in reluctant silence, too scared to speak her mind and risk being on the receiving end of one of the many brutal bashings and torture sessions they had begun to dish out with relish for the most minor of perceived infractions against the cause, right up until the time she had been forced to witness her own brother callously bashed to death by a particularly vicious thug by the name of Patrick Brogan, under the justification that he was a traitor for daring to speak to an outsider, when she knew the truth was that somebody had planted the idea that he was hiding a large amount of funds made from an illegal drug operation and his subsequent murder was nothing more than a shakedown resulting from greed and having gone horribly wrong.

How, after that, she had waited until a month past her daughter's, whom she had named Roisin in honour of her tiny rosebud cheeks, birth and then fled from her home and her country with little more than her passport, a change of clothes and a wad of cash stolen from the latest drug enterprise her husband had been involved in and hurriedly sewn into the lining of Roisin's bassinet.

How she had spent the next few months in hiding and moving from place to place, determined to stay one step ahead of those who she knew had labelled her a traitor and sought to kill her, preferably as slowly, painfully and with as much brutal relish as they could possibly muster, until one day she found herself in an Austrian city, exhausted and tired of running, fearing for her life and Roisin's life if the people who she was running from ever did catch up with her, and knowing deep down that it was only a matter of time before they did, when she happened to see the image of the man who had always gazed down at her so serenely from the old portrait in her Grandmother's kitchen, very much alive and in the flesh and stepping out of the Blood Bank in the middle of downtown Salzburg. How she had known, right then and there, who and what he was and she had made the decision to lay her tiny infant on his doorstep in an instant, relieved that at last she could move on, to flee unencumbered to a place where those who would do her harm could never find her, knowing she had found someone to at least protect her daughter and provide her with the life her mother wasn't going to be able to give her.

"It's really very simple" she replied with a determined smile, "I want you to take care of them for me, all of them. I don't want them coming after me or Roisin anymore. I want them gone and I want us to be safe again"

"Ro-sheen" Josef repeated slowly, half to himself, "it suits her, it means-"

"Little rose" Katherine finished for him, "I know it does, it's why I named her that. Can you help me or not?"

"That depends on exactly what you mean by 'taken care of' doesn't it" he replied with a casual shrug, looking down at the infant now cradled in her mother's arms "I named her Miriam, you know" he murmured distractedly, still loud enough for Katherine to hear him, "it was my-"

"Your sisters name" she hurriedly replied, "Yes, I know. I've studied the family history remember. Just as you know exactly what I mean by 'taken care of'. Unless of course you'd like me to spell it out"

"I thought you said I wasn't a monster" he challenged her then, taking a seat perched on the armchair where Mick sat and feeling Mick wrap an arm around his waist.

"You're not" Katherine replied simply, "but I also don't think you're exactly averse to killing to protect a member of your family"

"Ah yes, my family" Josef responded with a slightly disbelieving snort, as he laughed and shook his head at what he perceived to be the sheer incongruous of those words. Up until a few short hours ago, aside from a number of fellow undead that he considered to be friends, the only family he had known of were either a long buried painful memory of his past or now sitting next to him and tracing lazy circles on the small of his back with one hand as they looked up at him with tender concern.

"You'll do it then?" Katherine asked hopefully, watching as Josef bent down to pick up the Rosary and crucifix he had dropped on the floor earlier.

"I'll consider it" he said, glancing at the collection of beads and silver in his hand briefly before shoving it into the pocket of his trousers and standing up, taking Mick by the hand and pulling him to his feet with him, "you are family after all" he added with a wry smile, "but not before I've had some time to sleep on it" he told her firmly and wished her a curt goodnight, before he turned and started to walk away, leading an obedient Mick along behind him.

"Uncle?" she called out just as he reached the bottom step and started to ascend the stairs.

"Oh for the love of...call me Josef" he turned to her and snapped in frustrated response.

"I'm sorry, Josef" she replied softly, repeating his name back to him with a careful smile, "I know you heard my conversation with Mick before, but I just wanted to repeat what I said to you directly. I am sorry for how I acted earlier. It was rude and unfair of me and" she hesitated, unsure of exactly how to explain herself to him, "look I'm just sorry is all" she finished with a smile and nod of contrition.

"Don't worry about it" he replied dismissively, "I think we probably both said and did things in the heat of the moment that we perhaps should have thought about more first. How's the arm by the way" he asked her with a slightly forced smile.

"It's fine, I'll live" she responded with a note of laughter, "I told you, I've had worse. You're more than welcome to have a nightcap before you retire to bed or wherever it is you retire to" she offered with a polite smile, as she placed Roisin back down on the couch next to her and extended her arm in another gesture of invitation.

"You don't need my permission to feed, Josef" Mick smiled at him indulgingly when Josef gave him a questioning look, as if permission was exactly what he was looking for, silently knowing they were probably in for a restless night as Josef continued to try and come to terms with the events of the day and hoping some fresh blood might just be the thing to at least help him get a few hours rest in-between time.

He hesitated for a moment, then let go of Mick's hand and walked back over to where Katherine sat, kneeling on the ground just by her feet and taking her arm in his hand with greater care and consideration than he had done earlier.

"Just so you know" he told her with a polite smile, before he lifted her wrist to his mouth and gently sank his fangs into her delicate flesh, "We sleep upstairs in a large industrial freezer, custom built for two people"

"Really" she replied with a mixture of interest and disappointment, a soft gasp escaping from her lips as she felt his sharp teeth biting into her, "I was so sure you slept in a coffin"

Josef looked up at her with one eyebrow raised in response and as he drew the blood from her arm and into his mouth, he laughed almost in spite of himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are you alright" Josef heard Mick ask him gently, after they'd finally retired for the evening and he stood under the warm spray of the shower, hands braced against the cold tiles in front of him as he let the water beat down on over his neck and back and Mick stood propping the glass sliding door open and regarding him with a mixture of concern and arousal.

I'm fine" he muttered dismissively, then turned and reached for Mick, pulling him into the small cubicle with him, not caring that Mick was still fully clothed and pressing his lips against his own, circling the inside of his mouth with his tongue as he kissed him deeply and gripped the back of his skull with his hands.

"Are you sure?" Mick whispered to him, breaking away from the kiss to run the edge of his tongue along the side of Josef's neck as he encircled his cock with one hand and began to stroke him with light teasing strokes.

"I just said I was, didn't I" Josef replied with the same dismissive tone, shifting his hands to place them on Mick's shoulders and pressing him downwards in a clear indication of what he wanted Mick to do.

Mick hesitated for a moment and then smiled, grabbing Josef around the waist for one last quick open mouthed kiss before he sank to his knees in front of him and used one hand to stroke the inside of his thighs, then skim over and grab onto his arse, the other grabbing hold of the base of his cock and directing it towards his mouth. He carefully drew his lips back over his teeth then encircled the head with his lips and tongue, slowly working his way down and along the shaft, consciously relaxing his throat muscles and taking as much of Josef's erection into his mouth as possible and then drawing back again to swirl his tongue over the head and flick lightly against the frenulum, gradually building up a steady rhythm of warm sucking wetness.

Josef moaned a soft snarling moan and let his head fall back against the tiles, feeling the water of the shower falling over his face and chest with an almost relaxing rhythm, in stark contrast to the rhythm of Mick's mouth and tongue, as he continued to work both of them over Josef's cock, making Josef feel anything but relaxed. He felt the first twinges of impending climax begin to curl up from the base of his penis, as his balls tightened upwards and he reached down to grip the back of Mick's head with one hand, guiding the pace a fraction as he groped for Mick's hand and prepared to come.

Mick looked up at Josef then, saw the way he was staring off into space, his eyes ice blue, vampiric, blotches of dark red standing out against the inhuman paleness of his skin, the look in his eyes a mixture of desire, arousal and-

Mick hesitated for just a moment, furrowing his brow slightly before he stopped what he was doing and stood back up again, too quick for Josef to stop him and just in time to feel the sudden sharp sting of Josef's fangs in his neck as he let out and snarl of pleasure and grabbed for Mick, biting into him as his cock twitched and pulsed and Mick felt Josef's climax flood over his fingers as he hurriedly steadied him one hand and reached down to grab hold of his cock with the other.

"What the hell did you stop for?" Josef blurted out incredulously when the last pulses of orgasm had died away.

"You looked like you weren't even here, Josef" Mick replied, repeating his same question before with the same tone of concern, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine" Josef pushed past Mick and grabbed a towel off the rack, briskly drying himself as he watched Mick strip out of his saturated clothes and step into the shower, "and what do you mean I wasn't here, where exactly did you think I was?" he added, rolling his eyes at Mick.

"In your head trying to direct and control everything as usual, Josef" Mick thought to himself, but kept silent and merely offered an apologetic shrug instead.

"What are we going to do about her downstairs" Josef asked then, the tone of his voice matter of fact but the sudden stiffness of his movements belied his emotional state.

"I'll make her up a bed on the couch in a minute; she can stay here for tonight at least, maybe find a hotel in the morning"

"Sure" Josef offered a forced smile and a brief nod, before announcing he was "going to the Freezer to get some sleep" and turning away, leaving Mick to watch after him with a look of concern on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as Mick had suspected, apart from a couple of hours of restless sleep snatched just before dawn, Josef didn't rest easy. He stumbled out of the freezer with a distracted "I need to get some work done" shortly after, leaving Mick to sort out Katherine's accommodation arrangements himself.

"The hotels in the city are all booked out" he stood in the doorway of Josef's office a short time later and announced.

"So, what do you want me to do about it" Josef replied, pretending to be thoroughly preoccupied with the computer screen in front of him.

"I don't want you to do anything about it, Josef" Mick said patiently, "I'm just letting you know, she'll have to stay here again tonight"

"Fine, whatever, I'm a little busy at the moment, Mick"

"I can see that, Josef" Mick replied trying to keep the tone of his voice as casual as possible, but finding himself gritting his teeth just slightly, and thought to himself "No what you're trying to do is stay in control of a situation you have know control over by hiding away up here and pretending to do work that doesn't actually exist"

"What?" Josef half mumbled under his breath, quickly shutting off the computer screen in front of him as Mick walked over behind him and wrapped an arm around his neck, leaning over to plant a quick kiss on the side of his face.

"You can't control everything, Josef" he told him gently.

"I know, I'm not" Josef replied dismissively, before reaching up to squeeze Mick's arm in a gesture that was meant to be reassuring but came across more as a brush off and muttered under his breath, "I need to get back to work".

Josef spent the rest of the day working, or rather hiding away and becoming increasingly withdrawn into his own dark reverie of trying to maintain control and order in is mind over a situation that had been dropped in his lap without any sort of instruction manual on how he was supposed to cope with it, or so Mick thought. Several times he came back upstairs to ask if Josef was alright and if he needed anything, only to find him staring intently at an object in his hand which he hurriedly shoved back into his pocket when he realised Mick was standing in the doorway of the office looking at him. Mick assumed it was the crucifix and rosary that Katherine had given to him previously. By that evening Mick knew he had to do something to try and snap Josef out of his current brooding state and make him see reason, there were just some things that were beyond his control and it wasn't always such a bad thing to just let go and accept that, or else you ended up driving yourself and those around you insane.

"Josef, come on come to bed" he said, leaning against the doorway of the office once again and regarding him with a reassuring smile, "you can finish whatever it is you're doing tomorrow"

"Just give me a bit longer, I need to get this done" he replied with the same dismissive tone he'd used all day, absentmindedly tapping away at the keys on the keyboard in front of him, "go on without me, I'll be there later"

"No, Josef. Now" Mick told him firmly, walking over to press the power button on the computer to off and extending a hand towards him, dropping the tone of his voice to a gentler level and saying with a pleading smile, "Come on, please."

"Mick I was-"Josef started to protest but then stopped, looked at Mick and nodded a simple agreement, allowing Mick to take him by the hand and lead him down the short passageway and into the bedroom.

"Come on, lie down" Mick instructed him, manoeuvring him over to the bed and pushing him back onto the mattress below.

'Why, what are we doing?" Josef asked distractedly.

'What do you think we're doing, you idiot" Mick laughed and shook his head in disbelief, before climbing on top of Josef and running the tip of his tongue along the length of his neck and starting to undo the fastenings on his shirt and pants, "You've been hiding away in your office all day, I want to spend some time with you"

Josef gave a half hearted shrug in response and wrapped his arms around Mick's neck, pulling him in closer and probing his mouth open with his lips and tongue as he started to kiss him, then looked at Mick questioningly when he felt Mick pull away.

"Oh no you don't" Mick told him with a sly smile, "I'm setting the pace tonight"

"Fine" Josef mumbled in response, the word partly swallowed up by Mick's lips pressing against his once again, kissing him with light teasing pressure. Again he tried to deepen the kiss, but Mick pulled away once more and smiled knowingly at him, quickly finishing the task of removing and helping him out of the rest of his clothes before he caressed his face gently with one finger and then continued with the same soft, teasing kisses.

Josef let out a soft snarl of appreciation, arching his back slightly and drawing in a sharp breath as Mick rolled over to lie next to him and encircled his erection with one hand, stroking the length of him with the same light, teasing pressure he'd used on his lips. He heard Josef moan when he increased the pressure slightly, picking up the pace of his strokes just a fraction, before returning to the same teasing rhythm as before.

Josef reached down and tried to grab hold of Mick's hand, undulating his hips at the same time to urge him go to faster. Mick pushed his hand away and whispered to him "relax", kissing him gently before returning to teasing his cock mercilessly with alternating hard and light pressure as he continued to stroke the length of his shaft, varying the pace as he did so.

"Mick, for fucksake come on" Josef hissed as his frustration increased, bucking his hips against Mick's hand "quit with the teasing bullshit, either jerk me off or fuck me or do something"

"You can't always expect to be the one in control of everything, Josef" Mick whispered to him, kissing his way along his neck and quickly fumbling under the pillow just above his head, as he halted his hand movements on Josef's cock for the moment and reached for what he'd placed under there earlier. He saw Josef's hand go down to try and stroke himself and hurriedly snapped one end of the handcuffs he'd just retrieved around his wrist, quickly grabbing for his other hand at the same time and forcing both his arms above his head, looping the chain of the cuffs around one of the metal posts of the wrought iron bed head and then snapping the other end around the wrist he still had free.

"Mick, what the fuck" Josef protested, tugging at the cuffs and trying to break the metal that held him in place in vain. It was one thing for him to submit to Mick on occasion, he'd done that plenty of times before, but this was different, he wasn't being given a choice and he wasn't entirely sure if he exactly liked being placed in that position. "Come on, take these things off of me, this isn't funny"

"It's not meant to be funny, Josef" Mick told him, quickly adding, with the same sly smile he'd used earlier, as he watched Josef continue to strain against the cuffs, "it's no use trying to break out of them either, they're a titanium alloy, special make, strong enough to hold the largest testosterone fuelled gorilla in place…or Vampire"

"Mick, please" Josef pleaded with him through gritted teeth, "I don't like this, now take them off me"

"I told you before, Josef" Mick responded to his protests matter of factly, "You can't always expect to be in control of everything and besides" he added as he straddled his legs and leaned down to tease the skin of his neck gently with his fangs, "not being in control can have it's benefits you know"

"Oh yeah like what?" Josef muttered darkly under his breath,

"Like how about you relax, stop struggling, let me take control and see what happens"

Mick waited for Josef to reluctantly stop fighting against the cuffs and chain that bound his arms and wrists above his head and then slowly resumed the teasing hand job he'd started before, reaching for the tube of lubricant they kept in the drawer of the night stand next to the bed at the same time and squeezing a small amount of the slippery fluid onto index and middle finger of his other hand. He instructed Josef to draw his knees up then carefully inserted his fingers, palm up, into his anus, pressing them against the front wall of his rectal passage and locating his prostate, massaging it lightly with firm gentle pressure eliciting a deep growl of pleasure from Josef as waves of pleasure hummed through his body. Mick bought him to the brink of orgasm, using every technique Josef had taught him, and a few he'd learnt for himself along the way, varying the pressure and stroke rate of both his hand on his cock and his fingers in his arse repeatedly, waiting until he had him on the very edge of no return before stopping and letting him fall back down again.

"Mick, please" Josef pleaded him with in a strained whisper, resuming his struggle against the handcuffs that held his wrists tight.

"Shh, just relax" Mick soothed, cutting off any further protests from Josef's lips by pressing his mouth against them and kissing him deeply as he continued to work his fingers inside him and stroke the length of him with his other hand, stopping and starting in a rhythm of merciless teasing until he had Josef whimpering and begging him "Please" over and over again.

"Not yet" Mick whispered in response, breaking away from the kiss momentarily, "you're still trying to control things, Josef. When you give in completely, that's when I'll let you come"

Josef fell immediately silent, trying to lay as still as possible and finding it no easy task with what Mick was currently doing to him.

"And I don't mean just lie there and pretend you're giving in either, Josef" Mick told him with a knowing smile, prompting Josef to roll his eyes and snarl in frustration.

After what seemed like an eternity, Mick finally sensed Josef let go, no longer struggling with him for control of the situation but allowing him to take over completely, submitting his mind and body to him entirely and he quickly undid the handcuffs around his wrists and positioned Josef across his lap, letting his head cradle against his chest as he resumed his previous administrations, this time not stopping until he'd bought him to the very brink of frenzy, listening to him moan and repeat his name almost incoherently in breathless tones, and then pushed him over the edge. He felt Josef's entire body stiffen for a brief moment, before he arched his back and let out a single sharp cry of release and then sank his fangs deep into Mick's neck, his fingers clawing at his face and chest as he snarled and growled with pleasure and went into near convulsions as shockwave after shockwave of climactic pulsations burst through him and his fluid flowed over Mick's fingers and down the length of his hand.

"See, I told you not always being in control doesn't have to be a bad thing Josef" Mick whispered to him when the last pulses of his orgasm had ended, kissing him gently as he lay him down on the bed and then quickly wiped his hand off with a tissue grabbed off the side table, before he lay down alongside him and draped one arm over his chest. He didn't really expect a reply, he figured after a session like that Josef was going to need some time to come back down to earth before he could form a coherent thought let alone a response. He waited, stroking the side of his face gently, until he heard the rhythm of Josef's breathing change and knew he had fallen asleep, then carried him effortlessly over to the freezer and placed him inside, undressing and climbing in next to him, wishing him a "good night" before pulling the lid shut and drifting off to sleep himself, one hand placed protectively on Josef's arm.

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Mick awoke sometime early the following day, with a start, finding an empty space in the freezer next to him. He stretched and yawned, waiting for the last vestiges of undead sleep to leave his body, before slowly climbing out of the cold receptacle and wrapping a robe around his naked body, taking his time assuming he would find Josef in his office or waiting for him downstairs. Checking Josef's office first he found the room empty and headed down the stairs into the lounge room, passing by a still sleeping Katherine on the couch, as he made his way into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of blood with still no sign of Josef anywhere to be found. He sipped the glass of crimson liquid with distracted concern, wondering if Josef had seen reason to go out without telling him. It was then he finally noticed the handwritten note on the kitchen table in front of him.

My Beloved Mick, it began, eliciting a smile from Mick at Josef's use of the term they had coined for one another all those years ago in Paris.

You were right. I can't control everything and I can't run from the past forever. I need to face some demons; I think it's time I went home. I'll contact you when I'm ready.

The note was signed simply, I love you. Josef"

Mick read the note over again, trying to make sense of the words on the paper as his mind reeled and the only thing he could think of to say was,

"Crap."


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Get up" Mick kicked the couch where Katherine lay sleeping, sharply, watching as she stirred and looked up at him bleary eyed "Up. Now"

"What time is it?" she mumbled, trying to shake off the last vestiges of sleep.

"Never mind that" Mick said dismissively, thrusting the note from Josef under her nose, "Home, where is it?" he demanded, underlining the part where Josef had written the words "it's time I went home" with a frantic tap of his index finger.

"Who's home?" she stifled a yawn and took the note from Mick's hand, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

"Josef's" Mick snapped in frustration, "Where did he come from, originally"

"Where did Josef come from originally?" she pretended to think for a moment, "Well, when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much" she began to say, slowly with tongue firmly planted in cheek, until she saw the dark look that flashed over Mick's face and held up her hand in a signal of retreat, "Ok, sorry I guess now isn't the time for jokes, "she said apologetically, looking at Mick a little fearfully at the same time. "The village of Ballinfad, Connemara, Galway" she quickly told him, "but the parish he belonged to was St Mary's Church on The Hill, situated in a part of Galway known as An Cladach, The Claddagh".

"Thanks. I need to contact the pilot and see if the plane's taken off yet" Mick muttered under his breath, as he stood up and hurriedly made his way over to the phone near the front door.

"Don't you mean the airport?" Katherine called out after him, just as Mick picked up the receiver of the phone and hurriedly punched in the direct number for the pilot of their private jet.

"We have our own plane. Josef has money" he replied distractedly, quickly adding "that's not why I'm with him" before he heard the click of a distant receiver being picked up and the voice of the pilot, still thick with sleep, ask "Who is it?"

"I never said it was" Katherine rolled her eyes and muttered half to herself, "some of us should be so lucky though"

"You know you're just as big a smart alec as he is sometimes." Mick told her when he had finished a brief conversation with the pilot and hung up the receiver.

"Must run in the family" she smirked at him, "So what's the story? Is your private jet currently winging its way to the Emerald Isle or not?"

"No, it's not. He must be flying one of the local airlines" the frustration and worry in Mick's voice was evident.

"Well great, you can contact one of them and see if he's onboard, can't you?" Katherine tried to smile helpfully.

"It's not that simple" Mick told her, picking up the receiver of the phone once again "Josef has hundreds of different identities he can use, by the time I asked the Airline to check all of them to find which one he's using, he'd be halfway over the continent. I need to phone Ryder and Beth" he turned away from her and muttered, quickly entering Ryder's number into the keypad of phone.

"Why? Do they have a private plane as well?" Katherine laughed as she stood up and stretched, then went to check on the still sleeping infant wrapped in a blanket and lying on the armchair next to her.

"No they don't, "he replied, gritting his teeth in annoyance before announcing, as if it were already a foregone conclusion, "but we're going to Ireland and I can't protect you and Miri, sorry Roisin, and worry about Josef at the same time" just as he heard Beth's voice say "Hello" on the other end of the line.

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"Mick" Beth got up from her seat on the plane next to a sleeping Ryder and made her way over to him, "it's ok, we'll find him" she said gently, sitting down next to Mick and reaching over to take hold of his hand in a gesture of comfort and friendship.

It had taken five hours for the plane to be refueled and ready for take off. Five hours in which Mick had placed a frantic call asking both Beth and Ryder to come to Salzburg immediately and Beth had begrudgingly, at first until Mick explained the situation, told him they would be there as soon as they could. Five hours in which he had placed a call to the Salzburg Airport to find out the estimated departure and arrival times of any flights from Salzburg to Ireland specifically landing at the Galway Airport, including any connecting planes, trains or automobiles travelling to the village of Ballinfad itself, then proceeded to grill Katherine for every little detail of where they were headed that he thought might even remotely be useful or important for him to know. Five hours in which he had just enough time to work himself into a state of near panic.

Now, several hours later, he found himself seated on Josef's private jet, heading for the Emerald Isle with Beth, Ryder, Katherine and a very small infant in tow and his feelings of dread and concern for Josef's welfare hadn't abated.

"Mick" Beth repeated, "We will find him. Josef can take care of himself you know" she added, trying her best to reassure Mick as she saw the considerable amount of worry that was etched in his face, "I don't think he would have made it to four hundred otherwise"

"I know" Mick half whispered a distracted reply, entwining his fingers with Beth's then pulling away when he felt her thumb begin to stroke the back of his hand. "I'm sorry" he told her when he saw the confused look on her face, "that just felt a little" he hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say, "That just felt a little uncomfortable" he said finally.

"Oh. Oh ok" Beth tried to force an understanding smile, then drew in a deep breath and furrowed her brow, chewing on her lower lip as she considered whether or not she should try and discuss the issue with Mick any further. "We are friends though Mick, aren't we?" she said after a few more moments of thought, deciding that the issue did indeed need to be discussed and now might as well be as good a time as any.

"Of course?" Mick's initial reply was slightly questioning in its uncertainty, unsure of where the conversation might be headed.

"Wow, don't sound so sure now" Beth rolled her eyes and laughed teasingly, then quickly changed the tone of her voice to a gentler level when she saw the look of annoyance that flashed over Mick's face, and said "Friends are allowed to show affection to one another you know, especially when one friend is hurting and needs some comfort or reassurance"

"I know" he replied a little hurriedly then repeated the words again, softer and more reassuring this time "I know, Beth ok. I know"

"Then why did you pull away from me just then?" she asked, looking at him with an expression that was part way between challenging and demanding, belying the hurt she actually felt at Mick's rejection of her attempt at offering him some sort of comfort in what she perceived to be a time of need.

"Don't look at me like that, Beth" Mick spat in response, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at her as he crossed his arms over his chest defensively, "I told you, it just felt uncomfortable"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come across like I'm trying to give you third degree, Mick" Beth apologised and smiled gently, "I was just trying to offer you some comfort. As a friend" she quickly clarified with an affirmative laugh, before dropping her eyes to the floor and quietly admitting, "It kind of hurt my feelings when you pulled away like that, Mick. I was just trying to be a good friend and it really felt like you were rejecting that"

"Beth, look at me" Mick told her gently, waiting for her to lift her eyes to his, "I didn't mean to make you feel rejected, ok? Just you doing that with your thumb felt a bit weird to me, that's all" he smiled at her reassuringly and reached over to take her hand back into his, squeezing it gently.

"I guess we both still need some time to learn what's appropriate for the boundaries of friendship and what isn't it" she laughed softly and returned Mick's reassuring squeeze of her hand with gentle pressure.

"Kissing is definitely out" Mick nodded and pretended to be serious for a moment, before allowing a cheeky smile to play over his face.

"Oh definitely" Beth nodded in reply, putting on a mock serious tone of voice, "Kissing is definitely not within the boundaries of friendship. Strictly no lip locking between friends"

"Or groping of private parts, groping of private parts wouldn't be acceptable either" Mick responded, nodding his head firmly as the grin on his face widened and he stifled a laugh

"No, definitely no groping of private parts" Beth returned Mick's same firm nod and grinned back at him, "Or sex, definitely no sex either. Although I've been told anal sex doesn't count so..." she looked at Mick and winked, then laughed when she saw the look of surprise that flashed over his face.

"You know you being a Vampire," he told her, shaking his head and letting out a slightly incredulous laugh "has definitely bought that feisty side of yours to the forefront"

"Why thank you" she smiled at Mick charmingly in response, then looked at him with a cheekily seductive grin and asked "Do you like it?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact I do" Mick replied with the same charming smile, then leaned forward more towards her "You know if I wasn't already taken" he said, dropping the tone of his voice to a playfully salacious level, then raising his eyebrows and winking at her, leaving the rest of the sentence unfinished.

"But you are taken, Mick" Beth responded simply, deciding the time for making jokes was over, "You are taken" she repeated; as she smiled at him and squeezed his hand in hers gently, "and I do know that. So please" she added, shaking her head and laughing softly, "no more being so touchy about me touching you, ok."

"Ok" Mick replied with a slightly sheepish smile, "Just so long as you don't do that thumb stroking thing on the back of my hand again, deal?"

"Deal" Beth grinned and nodded firmly, then furrowed her brow and looked at Mick as if she was trying to decide something. "What was it like? Falling in love with Josef?" she asked finally.

"What was it like falling in love with someone I'd been friends with for more than fifty years?" Mick shook his head and snorted in disbelief. "Are you sure you want to know, because I really don't think I can explain it properly"

"Just try" Beth smiled and shifted her position in the seat slightly, turning to face Mick more front on as she leant on the armrest between them and rested her hand under her chin, "Please. I'm really curious to know"

"Always the reporter, hey Beth" Mick teased her gently, then took a deep breath and paused just for a moment, trying to find the words to answer her question. "It was confusing, terrifying, exhilarating, exhausting, nerve wracking, wonderful, did I mention confusing" he stopped for a moment and let out a snort of laughter, then held her gaze firmly in his own and added with quiet sincerity, "and it felt more right than anything I've ever known in my life, mortal or otherwise"

"Even with me?" she asked in a tiny voice, and then mentally kicked herself as soon as the words were out of her mouth, _"God I sound like I'm 14 years old"_ she thought to herself with a derisive roll of her eyes. "Mick, I'm sorry I didn't mean for that to come out quite the way it sounded" she blurted, looking more than a little shamefaced as she hurriedly tried to counteract the childish tone of her previous words lest Mick think something was amiss. "I just meant" she hesitated, gesturing with her hand in frustration as she tried to find the right words.

"What was different about Josef compared to you?" Mick ventured helpfully and smiled when he saw the look of relief on Beth's face, "With Josef it felt like I was falling in love, with you?" he paused for a moment then shrugged, "it felt like I just wanted to take care of someone. Does that bother you?" he asked cautiously when he saw the look of pain that briefly crossed Beth's face.

"A little, I guess" she admitted, then waved her hand dismissively and tried to give him a reassuring smile, "but I'll get over it"

Mick thought for a moment about pressing the issue with her further, then decided the time wasn't right, he did have other more important things on his mind after all, "You should probably go and sit back down with Ryder now" he told her gently, "I think I'd like to just be alone for a while".

He saw her get up and then hesitate, looking at him with questioning concern as she asked "Are you sure?" then stood there and shifted nervously from one foot to the other, waiting for a response. He smiled and nodded briefly, then watched her turn and walk away, taking her seat back next to Ryder and resting her head on his shoulder, as she draped an arm across his chest and closed her eyes, drifting off into something resembling what looked like a restless sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------

By the time the plane carrying Mick and his entourage of undead and mortal companions had reached the aerial borders of Germany, Josef's flight had already landed at Galway airport. Making his way through customs, false documents in hand, he had managed to raise a small laugh at the reaction of the Immigrations Officer to the name on his passport, Charles Manson. Initially the name had been Josef's warped idea of a joke, but on a number of occasions he had found that having the name of an infamous mass murderer on your passport had come in very handy, especially in situations where one didn't want to be held up for too long. People tended not to want to draw too much attention to the fact that your name was Charles Manson out of a misguided desire not to cause offence. This time the Officer in question had given Josef an apologetic look and waved him straight through, not bothering to give the luggage he was carrying with him more than a cursory glance over.

Josef had made his way then to the nearest taxi stand. Climbing into the back of the first available vehicle he had muttered an instruction to the driver to "head for Balinfad" before handing him a small slip of paper with the address of his mortal home scrawled on it and resting his head against the window, watching the streets of Galway go by as he looked for what was old and familiar amongst the new and strange. It was the middle of a cold and overcast day in the village of Balinfad, when the driver eventually pulled up to the address Josef had provided him with, the rays of the noon day sun being blanketed somewhat by a thick layer of cloud. Josef hesitated for a moment, his hand resting on the handle of the door as he looked out the window and surveyed the old building in front of him. His former home was barely recognizable to him, having undergone numerous restorations and renovations in the many long years since he had lived there. He waited a few more moments, closing his eyes briefly and taking a deep breath to try and clear his head, before he told the driver to wait for him and then stepped out of the vehicle and made his way across the street, to the gate of the house he had been born in and spent the majority of his mortal years.

Standing there, at the threshold of so many memories, Josef found himself somewhat surprised to feel absolutely nothing, no sense of homecoming, of comforting familiarity or overwhelming nostalgia for the past, no pain at the loss of a life he couldn't go back to or the life he had once had, just nothing at all. Part of him had almost half expected a large sign saying "Welcome home Josef O'Dwyer" to leap out at him as soon as he approached the house, instead the overwhelming feeling he had was one of complete emptiness. What stood in front of him was merely a collection of bricks and mortar; all placed together in a certain way to form what could be considered a suitable habitat for a person to live in. It was just a house, like so many other houses, no more and no less.

Josef stood there for a few more moments, shifting from one foot to the other, his hand almost reaching out to push the gate open, thinking about walking up the small pathway to the front door and rousing whoever lived in side with a sharp knock on the door, until eventually he gave the small building that stood in front of him one final look and turned away. He crossed the road and climbed back into the taxi, thanking the driver for waiting for him and instructed him to "drive to St Mary's Church, Galway".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Beth" Mick hissed at her sharply, grabbing her by the arm and spinning her around to face him after they had booked into a small hotel on the outskirts of the city of Galway, "What's going on? You've been acting weird ever since we got off the plane"

"I'm just a little jet lagged, Mick" Beth replied defensively, shaking her arm from his grasp.

"You don't get jet lag flying from Salzburg to Galway, Beth" Mick crossed his arms and gave her a pointed look.

"Well ok then, I'm just tired all right. You were the one that dragged me and Ryder out of bed at some ungodly hour of the morning and then made us drive god knows how many miles to rush to your aid because Josef's decided to throw some sort of a hissy fit" Beth snapped back at him in reply, turning heel and starting to walk away.

"Beth" Mick called out after her, shaking his head and letting out an infuriated breath as he saw her wave a hand dismissively over her shoulder and kept on walking.

Their plane had landed at Galway Airport an hour ago, after a tense few minutes where Immigrations Officers had paid just a little too much attention to Katherine's forged travel documents (luckily for Mick she actually had forged documents in the first place, as she reminded him several times over, much to Mick's growing annoyance) they were waved through the gates and left the airport terminal to find a taxi to the nearest available hotel. From the time Mick had gently shaken Beth awake as the plane approached the runway, until the time they had booked into their respective hotel rooms, Beth had been in a mood. Not just any mood, a sullen, pouting, childish mood where nothing was good enough and no one, least of all Mick, could do anything right.

Standing at the counter of the hotel's reservation desk and watching Beth march away in a cloud of palpable annoyance, all Mick could do after she had gone was turn to a confused and suffering Ryder and shrug an apology.

"Maybe it's just that time of the month" Ryder laughed weakly, trying to make a joke of the situation, although he too had noticed Beth's sudden change of mood and wondered what exactly was going on.

"Yeah, maybe" Mick flashed Ryder an apologetic smile, not really knowing what else to say. He couldn't really think about any sort of a situation with Beth right at that very moment, he had other, more important things on his mind. He had to find Josef.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Josef sat in the taxi parked across the road from the Church he had once served as a Priest and stared out the window, his eyesight moving quickly back and forth over the bricks and stonework of the building in front of him, as his mind attempted to process the myriad of memories that it was being bombarded with when confronted with such a tangible and solid reminder of the past.

"Are you just going to sit there and stare at the bloody thing all day, or are you getting out?" he heard the taxi driver ask after more than several minutes had elapsed.

"You don't need to be anywhere in a hurry, do you?" Josef replied nonchalantly, as he reached into the pocket of his suit pants and pulled out a very expensive and elegantly stylish black leather wallet, drawing out a few hundred Euros in notes and waving them, with a pointed smile, at the driver.

"Your time, your money" the driver replied with a dismissive shrug and took the money from Josef's hand, quickly stuffing into the breast pocket of his shirt. "What are you waiting for anyway? Jesus has already been and gone, he ain't coming back" the driver laughed at his own joke and Josef rolled his eyes and gave him a patronising nod before he flashed a stern look in the drivers direction and told him, forthright, that he hadn't been paid to ask questions.

The next few hours were spent in forced silence, the driver chain smoking one cigarette after another, the smoke lingering in circles around the inside of the taxi, making Josef think for a moment that if he wasn't a Vampire he may very well have died of lung cancer by the time he exited the vehicle, whilst he watched a seemingly never ending parade of people coming and going from the Church in front of him. Staring out the window at them he wondered if any of them ever felt that God had abandoned them too, not just abandoned but also completely obliterated his image from their sight.

Josef waited until he was certain the very last person had left the building, the full moon forming an eerie backdrop of half lit clouds over the steeple of the Church, night having fallen some hours ago, then curtly thanked the driver for his patience and climbed out of the taxi. He lingered on the footpath across the road and took one last lingering look at the structure that loomed before him. After a few moments hesitation, he took a deep breath of resignation and began what felt like one of the longest walks of his life, towards the arched doorway.

The old Priest inside the Church heard the sound of the heavy wooden doors being pushed open as he collected the Chalice and Paten from the altar and prepared to pack them away, ready for the morning's mass. He turned, just in time to see Josef rise from his genuflection and lift his face towards him. As he stared at the image of the man before him, he did something he had never done in his forty years of service as a Priest. He dropped the Chalice and Paten, the items slipping out of his grasp with a clattering chink of metal meeting tile as they fell to the floor, the Chalice rolling along the aisle to stop just at Josef's feet.

"Saints preserve us" the old Priest whispered under his breath.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"You dropped this" "Josef bent down to pick up the Chalice that had stopped just at his feet and held it out to the old Priest, watching with curiosity as he approached Josef carefully and studied his face closely.

"Thank you" he took the Chalice from Josef's hand and then hesitated, as if he were trying to work out what to say next. "Frater meus Jesu Christi (my brother in Christ)" he said finally, after a momentary pause.

"Dominus Tecum (may the lord be with you)" Josef replied cautiously, looking at the old Priest in front of him suspiciously, not knowing what to make of the greeting he had just been given, a greeting which indicated the old Priest knew that Josef had once been ordained to the Priesthood himself. "How do you know-"he started to question, but the old Priest held up a hand to quiet him and responded simply with,

"Et cum spiritu tuo (and with thy spirit)" The old Priest laughed then, looking at the wondering expression on Josef's face, "You have a certain 'look' about you" he told him, reaching out to pat his arm gently in a gesture of reassurance, adding almost apologetically "I'm afraid you missed the evening Mass though"

"I can't take Holy Communion" Josef responded a little uncertain, still looking at the old Priest somewhat suspiciously.

"Of course not, I'm sorry. How silly of me to forget" the old Priest laughed and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture "Perhaps you'd like to join me in praying the Rosary though?" He gave Josef a warm, welcoming look and then smiled at him merrily, his eyes twinkling almost mischievously as he leant forward and whispered "For old time's sake", as if he was sharing something very conspiratorial. "I just need to put these away first"

"Of course" Josef gave a brief nod then paused for a moment, considering the offer he had just been given. "Sure, why not" he shrugged eventually and followed the old Priest to the front of the Altar, watching with detached interest as he stepped up behind the Altar and very reverently opened the tabernacle, carefully placing the Paten and Chalice back inside it, before walking back to take a seat in the front pew. Sliding in alongside him, Josef watched for a moment as the old Priest bowed his head and began to pray. After a few moments hesitation Josef joined him, bowing his head almost reluctantly and silently mouthing along, the words flowing easily from his memory, yet feeling strange and foreign on his tongue.

_"Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus Tecum" (Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee)_

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"Mick, be reasonable" Ryder pleaded with him, following Mick back down the stairs of the hotel as he prepared to rush off into the night to find Josef. "You can't just go barging into a Church in the middle of the night"

"Oh yeah? Watch me" Mick replied defiantly, pausing just at the door to the front entrance of the hotel and crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at Ryder almost challengingly.

"Besides that-"Ryder continued, ignoring Mick's words and body language, "I highly doubt the Church will even be open"

"Fine, I'll kick the door in" Mick huffed in response, prompting Ryder to let out a burst of laughter, as he rolled his eyes in mock exasperation and said, "Ok Mick, now you're just being ridiculous"

"Yeah, alright" Mick smiled and looked a little sheepish for the moment, then reached out and placed a hand on Ryder's shoulder, his expression turning serious once more.

"Look" he began to say, trying to make Ryder understand "I listened to you before when you stopped me from just rushing off to find Josef a few hours ago. I listened to you when you said we needed to arrange things like a supply of blood for us to drink and bags of ice for us to be able to sleep safely first, but now-" he paused and squeezed Ryder's shoulder gently, looking at him earnestly "-now I can't wait any longer. I have to find him Ryder, ok? I have to find him and I have to find him right now"

Ryder saw the desperate, determined look on Mick's face and smiled softly, "I understand" he said, patting Mick's hand on his shoulder, "Just be careful though, ok?"

"I will be" Mick smiled back at him, then felt Ryder's arms around his neck as Ryder suddenly rushed forward and spontaneously hugged him.

"I'm jealous of you, you know" Ryder admitted a few moments later as he stepped back from the embrace. "What you have with Josef, I mean" he quickly explained when he saw the questioning look on Mick's face. "I often wonder if I'll ever find something like that myself, one day"

"You don't think you have that with Beth?" Mick ventured carefully.

"I don't know. Maybe" Ryder replied, the tone of his voice frustrated in its delivery, before he quickly waved a hand dismissively in front of his face and said, "It doesn't matter now, it's not important. Just go find Josef"

Mick nodded once, just briefly, then turned to leave, letting out a snort of laughter and waving back over his shoulder as he heard Ryder call out after him…"and kick his ass from me when you do"

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Josef looked up and turned towards the door, the knocking that had begun just as they were completing the final round of prayers becoming louder and more insistent.

"I think I'd better answer it, don't you?" the old Priest sitting next to him laughed and stood up, waiting for Josef to do the same, quickly shuffling him back along the pew and into the aisle. Josef followed the old Priest as he strode towards the front door of the Church, his steps firm and insistent as he squared back his shoulders and brokered a no nonsense attitude, and found himself suddenly thinking he could almost be impressed with this guy.

"Yes? Can I help you" the old Priest's tone of voice was firm and simple as he opened the door to the stranger who had been hammering away with their fist on its wooden and metal structure.

"I'm looking for someone, a guy" Mick replied hurriedly, pushing his way inside the Church without waiting to be invited, "looks about 25 to 30, short brown hair, six foot tall…"

"Incredibly handsome, fantastic dresser" Josef added cheekily, stepping into Mick's field of vision.

_"Josef"_ Mick hissed his name with relief, rushing forward to embrace him and smother his face and lips with a myriad of urgent kisses, not considering or caring at that moment that not only were they both standing in a Church, but they were also in the presence of a man of the cloth.

Mick's initial relief quickly turned to fury at Josef for causing everyone so much worry and he stepped back, holding Josef at arms length as he began to berate him angrily. "What the hell do you mean going off like that without telling me first? Do you have any idea what you've put me through, I've been out of my mind with worry"

"I take it this is a friend of yours?" Josef heard the old Priest asking him, thankful for the interruption to Mick's sudden outburst.

"In a manner of speaking" Josef smiled at Mick and raised his eyebrows, as Mick stood in front of him and tried to look stern then burst into laughter and embraced him once again.

"I was so worried" he repeated softly, burying his face in Josef's hair as he held him tightly "Please; don't ever do this to me again"

"Mick" Josef gently pulled away from his embrace and linked his arm with Mick's, smiling as he indicated the old Priest standing to one side of them, "this is-" he stopped mid sentence and realised he didn't even know his name.

"Father Patrick, Patrick O'Malley. My friends call me Paddy" the old Priest stepped forward and extended his hand towards Mick with a merry smile.

"How very Irish" Mick laughed and shook the hand that was offered to him, "Mick. Mick St John" He introduced himself then gestured towards Josef standing next to him and added, "This is my partner, Josef Kostan"

"I know" Father Patrick smiled knowingly as he returned Mick's firm handshake, "or at least I already knew his first name"

"How could you? I never told you it" Josef started to say looking at Father Patrick in disbelief, but his words were cut off half way when the old Priest followed up with a question that completely floored the both of them,

"So are the two of you both Vampires, or just Josef?"

"How do you know what we are?" Mick replied with a defensive tone of challenge, stepping in front of Josef slightly and holding his arm out protectively to cover him as Josef rolled his eyes in disbelief and blurted out incredulously,

"Is there anyone, in Ireland, who doesn't know I'm a Vampire?"

"I'm a Historian" Father Patrick responded to Mick with a reassuring smile, holding his hands out in front of him, palm up, in a gesture meant to indicate that they had nothing to fear from him, "I've studied the history of the Ordo Praedictorum, the Dominican Order" he quickly clarified for Mick's benefit, "in Ireland extensively. As a matter of fact I've devoted the past forty years of my life to it. The story of Josef O'Dwyer, the young Dominican Priest known as Father Luke or Lucias, who disappeared from the Church in the mid part of the 17th century, is a very well documented piece of Church history"

"That still doesn't explain how you know what we are?" Mick challenged him, still covering Josef protectively.

"Mick, it's ok. If Father Patrick meant us any harm I'm sure he'd be laying dead on the floor by now" Josef took a step towards Mick and held up a hand to quiet him.

"You wouldn't kill a Priest, would you?" Father Patrick laughed nervously, looking at Josef and suddenly feeling a little afraid.

"No I wouldn't" Josef replied with a reassuring smile, seeing the look of relief that passed over the old Priest's face, "not ordinarily at least" he quickly added. "If my life or Mick's life were to be threatened though" he shrugged and left the rest of the sentence unfinished, giving the old Priest a pointed look of warning at the same time.

"I understand. You have nothing to fear from me Josef O'Dw…sorry, I mean Josef Kostan" Father Patrick smiled and nodded in assurance, "You or your friend here"

"My partner" Josef corrected him matter of fact, wrapping an arm around Mick's waist and pulling him in close, "and that's certainly reassuring, for your sake" he continued, smiling at Father Patrick pointedly, "but I think we'd both still like to know exactly how it is you happen to know what we are"

"Well it's not really all that difficult to understand" the old Priest shrugged in response. "I've seen portraits of you, very accurate in their likeness I might add, from the 17th century and yet here you stand before me, still living, or unliving" he paused for a moment and smiled knowingly, "as the case may be, so what else am I suppose to deduce? This is Ireland you know, land of the leprechaun, we believe in little men that hoard pots of gold at the end of a rainbow, believing in the existence of Vampires isn't that much of a stretch for us" he finished with a merry laugh.

"No I don't suppose it is" Josef quipped in response and then turned to face Mick. "Where are you staying?" he asked simply, drawing his arms around Mick's neck and leaning back to study his face, smiling at him warmly.

Mick ignored the question, answering instead with a pleading, "Josef, please just come home with me, we can get a flight back to Salzburg first thing in the morning."

"I am home" Josef cupped Mick's face with his hand tenderly and kissed him softly on the lips, "but this is something I need to do. I'd like to stay here for a while and speak with Father Patrick. That is alright with you, isn't it, Father?" he turned back towards the old Priest and asked.

"Quite alright" the old Priest answered merrily, "it's not everyday I have history literally walk through the door"

Josef laughed and nodded in reply, then turned back towards Mick and repeated his question from before, "Where are you staying"

"Flannery's Hotel, just on the outskirts of Galway" Mick replied hurriedly, as if it didn't matter where he was staying, "What about you though? What about us? We're supposed to be getting married. We've got a wedding to plan. You're the one that's been so pedantic and uptight about everything being perfect for that and now you're just going to put all of that on hold" Mick rushed through any reason he could think of for Josef to turn around and agree to come home with him that instant.

"Mick" Josef shook his head and regarded Mick almost sympathetically for a moment.

"I'm just worried, Josef" Mick finally admitted. "How do I know you're alright?"

"You don't" Josef shrugged and offered Mick a simple smile in response, "but there's also nothing you can do about anything anyway, so please, just go back to the Hotel and wait for me. I'll come and see you when I'm done. I promise"

"Josef-," Mick tried to offer another round of protests, but Josef quickly held up a hand to silence him.

"Now who's trying to control everything, Mick?" he chided him with a teasing smile, then drew his face towards his, covering his lips with several warm, soft kisses as he pressed his forehead against Mick's and whispered, "I love you. Now go"

"Ditto" Mick mouthed after him, reluctantly letting go as Josef disentangled himself from Mick's arms and turned away from him.

"So the two of you are getting married? Congratulations" he heard the old Priest saying as he walked back up the aisle towards the Altar, with Josef alongside. "How long have you been together?"

"Fifty years"

The old Priest looked surprised for a moment "I must say you do make quiet a handsome couple" he said eventually, a merry twinkle in his eye.

"Yes. We're quite the pair" Josef laughed in response and turned back towards the entrance of the Church, just in time to see a fleeting image of Mick as he walked out the door.

"So what did you wish to speak to a humble servant of the Lord, such as myself, about" Josef heard Father Patrick ask simply, as he turned back towards him.

"God" Josef replied after a brief moment of hesitation, regarding the old Priest with a look of determination.

"Well you've certainly come to the right place" Father Patrick quipped slightly, then smiled warmly at Josef, opening the door leading to his private offices at the back of the Church, and ushering him through it.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Fifty years is a long time to be with someone, even in human terms" the old Priest told Josef with a warm smile, as he gestured for him to take a seat on one of the two, well worn, leather armchairs that stood in the corner of his private office.

"Hmm, I suppose it is" Josef replied distractedly, regarding Father Patrick with some curiosity before he spoke again, "I must admit" he began hesitantly, shifting uncomfortably in his seat and throwing the old Priest a slightly defensive look "I'm more than a little surprised at your reaction to Mick, to my relationship with Mick I mean."

"You expected me to rain fire and brimstone down on you, perhaps?" Father Patrick smiled knowingly.

"Something like that" Josef let out a slightly derisive snort of laughter and shook his head, as if to indicate that he really shouldn't have been expected to think otherwise.

"Some of us are more enlightened these days than others" Father Patrick smiled reassuringly, "On that particular matter I would only ask you one thing. Do you love one another?"

Josef stared at the old Priest for just a moment, as if trying to gauge the depth of his sincerity in asking that particular question. Finally, satisfied the old Priest's curiosity was genuine, he answered with a nod of the head and a firm "Yes, yes we do" the tone of his voice leaving no room for doubt.

"That is good then" Father Patrick smiled and nodded in response, "there is far too little love in the world these days for anyone to quibble over such irrelevant matters as the respective genders of those who are in love"

Hearing Father Patrick speak those words and seeing the kind look on his face, Josef began to relax, resting back in the chair and adopting a less defensive, more open, body posture. Then, before he even realised what he was going to do, he took a breath and began to tell the old Priest the story of his life with Mick, the words rushing forth, spilling one on top of the other, as he tried to cram fifty years of history into one brief moment of conversation.

"What?" he asked when he had finished, the tone of his voice slightly challenging, the position of his body shifted back to a more defensive posture, as the old Priest merely sat there in silence looking at him with a smile on his face that Josef couldn't quite read.

"I'm sorry" Father Patrick shook his head briefly, breaking out of his silent reverie to offer Josef an apologetic smile "I didn't mean to not give you an immediate response. True love is a thing of such rare beauty I always make it a rule to sit back and admire it when I see it" He smiled graciously and breathed an internal sigh of relief when he saw Josef begin to relax once again. He waited a few more moments, until he was certain Josef was once again at ease in his presence and then approached him carefully with, "You didn't come here to talk about Mick though, did you?"

"No, no I didn't" Josef's response was low, but not so low that the old Priest couldn't hear him and he paused again for the briefest of moments, allowing Josef time to mentally prepare for any discussions ahead of them, before he asked, in the most even tone of voice he could muster, "So tell me, why did you leave the church?"

"I found God" Josef spat the words out with bitter irony, laughing as he recalled those were the exact words he had used when Mick had asked him the very same question.

"I take it God wasn't to your liking then?" Father Patrick half teased, challenging Josef to respond with a slightly too knowing smirk.

"No, no he wasn't" Josef adopted the same knowing smirk in response, folding his arms across his chest and looking smugly at the old Priest as he continued on with, "As a matter of fact considering I discovered that he didn't even exist, I'd say he was one giant disappointment."

Father Patrick raised one eyebrow and regarded Josef with a questioning look for a moment, "It seems a little odd to me" he began with a challenging smile, leaning forward in his chair slightly, "that you could be disappointed with something that you don't even believe exists in the first place"

Josef glared at the old Priest in frustration, then waved a dismissive hand in the air and countered his challenge with "It was just a turn of phrase, besides how would you feel if you'd devoted your life to something only to find out you'd be part of one of the biggest cons of human history"

"I think I'd feel like a right fool" Father Patrick answered honestly, taking a moment to smile at Josef sympathetically, as if trying to convey the sentiment that he was at least trying to understand how he might have felt, even if he himself had never experienced such a situation personally. "Tell me though," he quickly added, not giving Josef enough time to form a response to his previous statement, "what makes you so sure that God does not exist? You were a Priest after all. To go from Ordained to Atheist is more than just doing a three hundred and sixty degree turn around, it's almost unheard of in my experience. So what happened?" He leant forward in his chair even more, regarding Josef with careful interest as he waited for him to respond.

"What happened? I'm still here, that's what happened" Josef spat incredulously, rolling his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief at the same time. "Only God was supposed to be able to grant immortality, in the after life" he quickly explained when he saw the confused look on Father Patrick's face.

"Ah I see" the old Priest smiled with sudden understanding, "You expected God to strike you down as an abomination to his design and when he didn't you came to the conclusion that God could not possibly exist"

"Exactly" Josef nodded a firm affirmation and looked relieved to think that finally somebody seemed to understand what, to his mind at least, was simple logic. "Yes, that's it, that's exactly it. If God exists then I should not"

"You make it sound so simple" Father Patrick smiled at him knowingly, "but what if it isn't"

"What do you mean?" Josef shifted in his seat uncomfortably once again, looking at the old Priest suspiciously. "I've thrown out enough challenges to God over the last four centuries" he quickly added, with cocky self assurance, "challenges that have gone completely unanswered I might add, to truly know that God does not exist" He sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, flashing a look of triumphant defiance towards the old Priest, who merely regarded him with simple amusement in return.  
"So you're disappointed in something that you don't even believe exists" the old Priest chuckled, "then you spend centuries throwing out challenges to the same thing that you are so certain does not exist. You know for someone who is so convinced that something does not exist, you seem to be spending an awful lot of time concerning yourself with the non existent" He hesitated for a moment then brushed aside his comments with a dismissive wave of a hand, "From what I can tell" the old Priest said then, smiling at Josef as if he were about to impart some great hidden knowledge, "you've been looking for God in all the wrong places"

"And where exactly do you suggest I look for him then" Josef responded with overtones of polite sarcasm.

"Well not here for a start" Father Patrick laughed and gestured widely to indicate the surrounding Church that they were presently seated within, "or here" he added knowingly, tapping the large Bible on the table in front of them. "Both man made creations" he quickly explained when he saw the look of confusion that had fallen over Josef's face. "God, the living, knowable, tangible God, is not found within the pages of some book written by human hands two thousand odd years ago, nor will you find him amidst the hollow stone facade of any man made house of worship either"

"So tell me where I'm supposed to find him then" Josef repeated the question more harshly this time, beginning to tire of what he perceived to be Father Patrick's sudden bout of strange and heretical philosophising.

"I'm getting to that" the old Priest gritted his teeth slightly with his reply, "you've spent the last four centuries or so seeking a God you claim does not even exist, I think you can wait another five minutes, don't you?" he leant back in his chair for a moment and looked at Josef with polite indifference, waiting until he sensed a shift in his attitude, from one of hurried frustration to a more curious and open minded stance, before he stood up and indicated that Josef should do the same, smiling merrily as he beckoned for him to "Come with me".

"Alright, so where's this God of yours then" Josef laughed as he surveyed the slightly ramshackle garden the old Priest had lead them out into.

"Right here" Father Patrick looked at him with a knowing smile and gestured towards the myriad of plants and rocks and tiny creatures that surrounded them. "There is nothing on this earth that does not hold some purpose, nothing in this world that does not contain some sort of divine spark of life within it. This is where you will find God, Josef O'Dwyer"

"Kostan" Josef quickly corrected him.

"Of course, my humble apologies, Josef Kostan" he smiled with sincere grace for a moment, then continued on "Don't look for God in musty old books and cold unfeeling stone temples erected by man for the greater glory of God. God has no need of such things, why would he when the entire world, and every thing in it, is his living temple, a temple far greater than any man could ever possibly conceive of. This is God, the God of the soil, of the field, of the plants and animals and everything else in the wondrous tapestry we call the natural world. Every single time you connect with another living creature, everytime you share true joy and happiness with someone you love, every time you connect with the energies of the world around you, whether you realise it or not, you are connecting with the divine spark of all creation that some might call, God"

Josef stared at the old Priest in near dumbfounded disbelief for the briefest or moments, before he burst into peels of laughter, struggling to catch his breath long enough to speak, "You know at first I just thought you were a just heretic" he began to say, clapping his hand jovially on the old Priests shoulder when he was finally able to string more than two words together at a time without breaking into fresh rounds of guffawing, "but now it's suddenly oh so clear to me. You, good Father, are a Pagan"

"A Heathen conceivably" the old Priest smiled broadly, beginning to quote a line from one of his favourite movies, "but not I hope…"

"An unenlightened one" Josef finished for him with a knowing smile.

"No, not an unenlightened one, or at least not as far as I can help it. I moonlight on the weekends by the way" he raised an eyebrow and grinned at Josef with a merry twinkle in his eyes, then winked conspiratorially "Dancing naked around Maypoles is somewhat of a speciality of mine"

"Oh I'm sure it is" Josef replied with mock seriousness, just before he found himself once more near doubled over with laughter at the sheer incredulousness of a situation which had bought him all the way to the land of his mortal birth and childhood, only to find himself having conversations about God with what could very well be the only Pagan Catholic Priest in all of Irish Christendom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the hotel, Beth greeted Mick upon his return with a moody "So did you find him then" sitting at a table just off to one side of the front entrance and pretending to be engrossed in a magazine that lay in front of her.

"Yes, I did" Mick replied hesitantly, then slipped into the seat next to her, "Is that any good" he asked politely, pointing to the magazine that seemed to have her undivided attention and waiting to see if he could raise some semblance of a smile from her.

"So is he coming home then?" Beth asked with faux indifference, pretending to be more interested in flicking through the pages of the magazine at random than actually answering Mick's attempts at making polite conversation "No I didn't think so" she muttered to herself and rolled her eyes when Mick's response wasn't immediately forth coming. "You want to know what your problem is Mick" she announced all of a sudden, closing the magazine in front of her with a pointed thwack of paper hitting against paper.

"No, but I'm sure you're about to tell me, Beth" Mick responded with an overly charming smile that was bordering right on the edge of being sarcastic.

"You're pussy whipped, or cock beaten or whatever the term is for your sort" she smirked at him and made a slightly dismissive gesture in the air with her hand, as if to indicate that the exact terminology wasn't important, Mick ought to know what she meant.

"My sort, Beth?" Mick let out an incredulous laugh and rolled his eyes in disbelief, "What you mean like us gay folks" he leant over towards her and whispered the words as if sharing some great conspiracy, then suppressed another burst of laughter, deciding at that moment that he couldn't possibly take anything Beth said seriously when she was using terms such as "your sort". He was also very glad, just for a moment, that Josef wasn't sitting there with them or else he shuddered to think what his response to Beth's choice of words would have been.

"That's not what I meant, Mick" Beth hissed at him in reply. "I just meant-,"

"What Beth? What did you 'just mean'" Mick's previous sense of humour at the ridiculousness of the situation quickly gave way to annoyance, he had no idea what Beth was playing at with her choice of words, a choice Mick knew she wasn't stupid enough to have just made accidentally. He got the distinct impression she was baiting him and he refused to allow himself to be reeled in to whatever game she had decided to play. "I'm sorry" he forced a gracious smile and waved a dismissive hand in the air between them, "I don't mean to be rude, Beth. I know you didn't mean it like that" he paused for a moment and then made a sweepingly polite gesture for her "to please, continue. Tell me what you think my problem is"

Choosing to ignore Mick's obvious lashings of sarcasm, _"My god you're even starting to sound like him"_ she thought to herself with obvious disdain, Beth drew in a slight inhalation of breath and then proceeded to inform Mick exactly what she thought he needed to know, for his own good of course, "As I was saying, Mick" she began slowly, enunciating each word as if she were addressing a very small, rather naïve child, "the trouble with you is that you allow Josef to run all over you. I bet all he had to do was say the right words and give you that puppy dog eye look and you melted and came running back here like a good little boy with your tail between your legs"

"It wasn't like that at all, Beth" Mick's reply was more than a little defensive, she'd hit a nerve and he knew it, although he wasn't about to let her know that. "Josef just needs some time alone for a while, after all he's done for me it's the least I can do for him" He suddenly felt very angry at being given the third degree like this and pushed his chair back, ready to stand up and take his leave, thinking to himself as he did so, _"And I don't need to justify myself to you"_, when he heard her telling him in that infuriatingly smug 'I know better than you do' tone of voice,

"Or maybe you just don't care as much as you think you do, Mick"

"What exactly is _that_ supposed to mean?" he shifted his chair back sharply towards her and held her gaze with his, issuing her with a slightly menacing challenge as he glared at her with barely concealed annoyance quickly rising to anger and waited for her to respond.

"That crap on the plane, Mick" Beth spat at him, "You coming on to me like that"

"What crap on the plane?" Mick looked utterly confused for the briefest of moments before it quickly dawned on him what she was referring to, "Oh that" he started to say, only to find himself being cut off by Beth's rapid fire delivery of,

"Yes, Mick, that. If you love Josef as much as you say you do, then what the hell were you doing making a pass at me?"

"I wasn't making a pass at-,"

"Or is it just the fact that you can't admit to yourself that there's still something between us" She continued on without skipping a beat, not giving Mick any room to respond, prompting him to place his hand over her mouth in order to at least have enough time to get a word in edge wise.

"I don't know what you're playing at this time, Beth" he hissed at her, "but there is nothing between us. We've been through this before and I am not going to go through it again with you. Now I'm sorry if you misinterpreted what was supposed to have been nothing more than a bit of harmless flirting between friends and perhaps I did overstep the mark a bit"

"A bit?" Beth blurted out with an incredulous laugh, quickly falling silent again when she saw the look on Mick's face.

"Ok, ok Beth I'll give you that much" he held up his hand to signal his retreat, "Perhaps you're right and I did overstep the mark, but" he quickly clarified, "it certainly was not meant the way you've obviously taken it. It was meant as nothing more than a bit of light hearted banter between two friends. Friends, Beth. Alright? Nothing more and nothing less than that. I love Josef, I am with Josef and I am going to marry Josef, not you" his tone was final, leaving no room for argument as he finished what he had to say and stood up and began to take his leave of her, turning back only briefly to ask "Where's Ryder"

"Upstairs in his, I mean our room" Beth answered bitterly, looking as if she were suddenly on the verge of tears.

"Then I think you need to go up there and spend some time with him" Mick forced a polite smile, ignoring the threat of tears, "don't you?"

Without waiting for a response he turned heel once more and strode away.

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"You still expect to find God in the pages of a book don't you" Father Patrick approached Josef one evening, finding him hunched over yet another dusty old text from the vast array of writings stored in the Churches private library collection.

"Well I certainly haven't found any connection to the divine sitting out in the garden with you watching plants grow" Josef smirked at the old Priest then went back to pouring over the book in front of him, scouring the words, written in Latin, for that one piece of writing that he half expected would suddenly unlock the meaning he had been searching for the last four and half centuries.

"Sitting out there with me, rolling your eyes and looking bored to tears, Josef Kostan" the old Priest smirked at him in return, "does not constitute looking for the divine in what is around you in the present moment"

"No, what does it constitute then" Josef asked quite matter of fact, not bothering to look up from the page he was reading.

"A Vampire who is very stubborn and thinks he knows better than anyone else, but if he did then he wouldn't have spent the last four centuries or so looking for something he didn't even believe in, in all the wrong places" Father Patrick sat down at the table opposite Josef and gently, but firmly, pulled the book away from him and closed it with a soft resounding thud. He braced himself for a moment, hearing the resonant growl that was emanating from Josef's throat, and then breathed a sigh of relief when the sound stopped and Josef raised his head and met his gaze, albeit with a slightly challenging expression clouding his face. The old Priest paused for a moment before he spoke again. "Why don't you get out of here for a while" he said, trying to keep the tone of his voice as gentle as possible. "Go see Mick; I know you've been missing him"

It had been two weeks since Josef first arrived at the Church. Two weeks in which he had spent the days sleeping in the basement, several bags of ice procured daily from the local Hotel packed around him to try and replicate the effects of the freezer he normally slept in, and the nights hunched over a myriad of texts, both old and new, when he wasn't sitting out in the garden watching plants grow, as he put it, and being generally bored out of his immortal mind. On several occasions Father Patrick had noticed Josef sitting on the floor of the Church right at the front entrance, his forehead rested against the wooden door, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled a scent that the old Priest had rightly assumed was Mick's.

Josef looked at Father Patrick, considering his words for a few moments and then let out an almost reluctant sigh of admittance. "Maybe you're right" he shrugged and then smiled broadly, unable to suppress the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth, all previous feelings of self righteous anger at what he thought of as the old Priests tiresome meddling, dissipating with thoughts of Mick.

"Of course I'm right" Father Patrick quipped in faux indignance. "Now go" he laughed and made a flourished gesture in the air with his hand, "seek happy nights to happy days. I also do a pretty mean Hamlet" he added with a laugh, as Josef snorted and rolled his eyes at him, "and if you don't get out of here I'll treat you to my rendition of to be or not to be" He took a dramatic pause then made a point of inhaling in a deep breath, as if he were expanding his lungs ready to annunciate the words in the most extravagant of fashions.

"Ok. Ok I'm going" Josef laughed and held up his hands in a gesture of defeat, quickly pushing his chair away from the table and getting to his feet.

"Dominus Tecum" the old Priest walked around the table and took Josef's hand in his, smiling at him gently as he spoke the words of the blessing.

"Et cum spiritu tuo" Josef responded, then slipped his hand out of the Priest's grasp and turned to leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mick was lying on the bed in his hotel room, staring up at the ceiling lost in a private reverie of thoughts of Josef, wondering if tonight he should actually go and speak to him rather than hovering around the entrance to the Church as he had done for the past ten nights, when he heard the tap at the door. Taking a moment to stretch out the kinks in his body, he got up and retrieved a couple of notes from his wallet on the bedside cabinet, then made his way over to answer the door to his unannounced visitor, money in hand ready to offer a tip assuming it would be one of the hotel staff.

"What am I a gigolo service?" Josef quipped, a cheeky grin playing at the corners of his mouth, as Mick opened the door and he saw the money in his hand.

"Josef" Mick exhaled his name in a rush of surprised awe, reaching out to caress his face gently with the palm of his hand before he clutched the back of his neck and drew him toward him, pulling Josef into his embrace and holding him close, almost afraid to let go. "I've missed you" he whispered to him, pressing his forehead against Josef's then brushing his lips gently against his cheek.

"Likewise" Josef whispered back, pressing his lips against Mick's and kissing him warmly before gently disengaging himself from Mick's arms and taking a step back. "Come for a walk" he said, holding out his hand for Mick to take and offering him a simple smile.

They walked the streets together in silence for the most part, Josef occasionally pointing out places of interest from his mortal days as a Priest in the village as he lead Mick towards the outskirts of the town and the rolling meadows of soft clover, dotted with the occasional oak tree reaching towards the sky like some ancient majestic being planted to watch over the land. Gesturing for Mick to take a seat on the ground in front one of the old oaks, Josef sat himself in-between Mick's legs and settled back into Mick's embrace, sharing a comfortable silence with him for a moment as Mick leant back against the trunk of the tree behind him and wrapped his arms around Josef's chest.

"You must be furious with me for just up and leaving like I did" Josef said finally, breaking the silence between them.

"Well yeah" Mick laughed and planted a quick kiss on the side of Josef's face, "but I understand, you needed to do this"

"Mick, come on" Josef protested, pulling away from his embrace slightly, "what I did was bullshit and you know it. I could have waited for you; we could have done this together. I didn't need to just go rushing off like I did. Be angry with me, I deserve it"

"Josef, it's alright. I said I understand" Mick reassured him, trying to draw him back closer towards his body and feeling Josef suddenly stiffen and pull away completely.

"Why the hell don't you react" he quickly turned towards Mick and spat angrily.

"What the…"

"Why don't you react" Josef repeated, his voice rising furiously. "I leave you without any warning to go traipsing off on some spiritual quest and you don't react. I kick you across a room several times and act like a complete idiot over the most trivial of issues and you still don't react. Why? Why don't you react to me? I've been trying to get a reaction from you for I don't how damn long and it never happens. Why? All I want is one goddamn sign that you're there and I never get it."

"Josef?" Mick stared at him, stunned at Josef's sudden outburst, not knowing what to do as the realisation slowly dawned on him that Josef wasn't really talking to him at all and he had just become some stand in for whatever personal demons Josef had been wrestling with these past weeks. Then, acting on pure impulse, he did the first thing that came to mind.

"You want a reaction?" Fine. Here's your reaction" he shouted back then made a sudden grab for him, pushing him down onto the ground and bending his head towards his lips, crushing his mouth against Josef's in a breathless kiss as he straddled his body and began to hurriedly remove the clothes he was dressed in, fingers moving deftly over the various buttons and fastenings.

"Mick" Josef whispered breathlessly, his previous reverie of anger broken by Mick's sudden passion for him, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

"Josef. Shut up" Mick muttered in response, the words muffled as he covered Josef's face and neck with hot, wet kisses before breaking away momentarily to rapidly shed his own clothing as Josef did the same with the remainder of his own.

Rejoining him on the ground, Mick hurriedly spat into this hand, coating the head of his cock with saliva then smearing a mixture of spit and pre-ejaculate around the entrance to Josef's arse, before pressing the tip of his penis against his hole and pushing the full length of himself carefully inside him. Pausing for a moment to allow Josef's body time to adjust to the sensation of being filled, before drawing back slowly only to plunge himself back into Josef's tight passage in one hard thrust, repeating the motion again and again, slow and steady at first then gradually picking up the pace until he was fucking him as hard as he possible could.

And as Josef lay beneath him, his legs wrapped around Mick's waist, his hips moving in time to every thrust of Mick's hard cock into his body and his hand caressed the planes and shadows that the pale moonlight had cast over Mick's back as he panted and snarled his pleasure into Mick's ear, he suddenly realised what the old Priest had been trying to tell him all along. This was divinity, this was God. Not the God of musty old texts and long forgotten rituals buried amongst the centuries old stones of some man made building. This was the God of the present moment, the God of passion and love and ecstasy, the God of the now where nothing else existed but the pure joy of desire and want and need and the final connection to all of life's mysteries.

Mick felt Josef's body tense beneath him, his back arching up, every muscle in his bound trembling with the need for release and he tried to quicken the pace even more, his thrusts becoming increasingly frantic and erratic as he sensed Josef was close to climax. Seconds later Josef let out a single piercing snarl of delight then sank his fangs sharply into Mick's neck as his orgasm tore through him and he shuddered and snarled with sheer pleasure and pulled Mick over the edge with him, the euphoric sensation of Mick's fangs biting deep into the soft flesh of his throat sending Josef spiralling into another wave of climactic pulsations.

When it was over and the last residual waves of their respective orgasms had finally died away, Mick collapsed on top of him, his breathing still ragged as he whispered in his ear, "I love you" and Josef burst into peals of laughter.

"Ok, not exactly the response I was expecting" Mick pushed himself back up onto outstretched arms and looked down at Josef, lying under him and laughing almost in a state of rapture, and furrowed his brow questioningly.

"No Mick, you don't understand" Josef quickly tried to explain, in-between his sudden mirth. "Everything Father Patrick has been trying to teach me and show me for the past two weeks has just suddenly made complete sense"

"Ok. So I gave you an orgasm and you found God? Damn was I that good" Mick shook his head and let out a burst of incredulous laughter of his own.

"No. I mean yes. I mean, no" Josef waved his hands in the air in gesture of frustration, struggling for the moment to find the right words to make Mick understand what had just happened.

"It's ok Josef" Mick told him gently, as he slipped his softening cock out of his passage and rolled over to lie next to him, "I can't really profess to understand what's just happened, but I'm glad you're happy" He draped an arm across Josef's torso and rested his head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heart struggling to beat, the tones far too quiet and distant. "Josef" he said, concern clouding his voice as he sat up and pulled Josef up into an upright position with him then wrapped his arms around his neck. "I can barely hear your heartbeat, you haven't been feeding enough. Let's go back to the hotel; I'll get you some blood. _And a nice white coat with buckles on it as wel_l" he added to himself, only half joking not really certain that Josef hadn't gone completely insane in that moment.

"Mick, I'm fine. Stop fussing" Josef chided him, "Father Patrick's been letting me feed from him when I need to. I'm alright really. Let's get married" he blurted out suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" Mick looked up at him with utter confusion, "I thought we already were?"

"No. I mean now, right now, right this very moment. I love you let's get married. Father Patrick can perform the ceremony"

"Carpe Diem hey Josef" Mick laughed and shook his head, finding himself being swept along by Josef's sudden enthusiasm for instant wedlock. "Sure why not. For better or worse, right?"

"No Mick, for eternity" Josef looked at him and spoke the words with depths of genuine sincerity. "Come on" he said then, getting to his feet and collecting both their various articles of clothing, handing Mick his with the instruction to "Get dressed and hurry up, you don't want to be late to your own wedding."

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Josef? Josef wait up," Mick called out as Josef, already dressed, raced off and Mick half stumbled after him, still struggling to pull up his pants. "Josef for fucksake, slow down." Mick finally caught up with him, making a grab for his arm and spinning him around to face him. "Are you sure you want to do this" he asked, reaching up to brush a few stray leaves of clover from Josef's hair and looking at him with some considerable concern.

"What do you mean 'am I sure'?" Josef looked at Mick incredulously, "We've been planning this for months now. I proposed to you, remember? Of course I'm sure"

"I know all that Josef, it's just…"

"Just what, Mick? I thought this is what you wanted? No fuss, just the two of us getting married without the three ring circus act" he raised an eyebrow in a gesture of acknowledgement at past difficulties and then folded his arms across his chest, regarding Mick with a hint of challenge in his smile. "You don't want to marry me now? Is that it?"

"I never said that, Josef. Don't you dare put words into my mouth" Mick shot back at him indignantly.

Josef thought for a moment about making some incredibly crude and cutting comment about other things being put into Mick's mouth, but decided against such vulgarities, lowering his arms back to his side instead and dropping the tone of his voice to a gentler level, as he regarded Mick with a questioning look and asked, "What is it then? You seemed keen on the idea just before"

"I was, I mean I am" Mick hesitated for a moment, letting out a frustrated breath as he struggled to find the right words. He took a step towards Josef and wrapped his arms around his waist, resting his forehead on his. "Your enthusiasm back there was a little infectious, Josef" he laughed, kissing the top of his head affectionately and then gently pushed him away, holding him at arm's length, "but this is not like you, Josef" he said with more than a little concern in his voice. "You've gone from being so damn hung up on the details of everything and wanting everything to be controlled and perfect, to just 'let's get married right now'. I know you, Josef. You just don't do things this spontaneously, not something as serious as this. I don't want you to regret this after the fact"

"Mick, look at me" Josef spoke in earnest, reaching out to grip Mick's face in his hands, turning his gaze towards his, "I will never regret marrying you, alright. Never" he paused for a moment, allowing the words to sink in. "Mick you have to try and understand" he tried to explain carefully, "I have spent more than four centuries feeling cheated by something I didn't even think I believed in. I have existed for all of that time with the shadow of the past hanging over me. It has haunted me for all that time, despite my persistent denial of the entire situation" he held up his hand to stop Mick from saying anything, giving him a look which was meant to convey the sentiment _"yes I am perfectly aware now that that is exactly what was happening, Mick. You were right when you said I couldn't run from the past forever"_. He took another breath and continued on. "Back there" he said, gesturing over his shoulder, "I finally realised that the only time I have ever felt at peace or connected to anything greater than myself is when I am with you, Mick. That was divinity revealed to me. In the present moment, in the moments when we are together and everything makes sense even when it doesn't"

When Josef had finished speaking, Mick could do little else but stand there and stare for a few moments, not knowing how to respond. He knew Josef was imploring him to understand and he didn't know if he really did or even if it was possible for him to do so. After all he hadn't been through what Josef had carried with him for all those centuries of his Vampiric existence. "I don't know what to say" he finally admitted.

"That's easy, Mick" Josef arched one eyebrow and grinned, unable to resist breaking the heightened emotions of the situation with his own special brand of cheek, "I can tell you exactly what to say, just repeat after me, "Josef I love you, we should go and get married right now"

"Josef I love you, we should go and get married right now" Mick shook his head and laughed in response.

"Yes, we should" Josef replied back to him, the expression in his voice serious this time, as he wrapped an arm around Mick's waist and began to walk with him back to the hotel.

"You might want to have a shower and get changed first though, Josef" Mick told him along the way, grinning knowingly as he pointed to the wet patch on the front of his shirt and trouser where the semen from his orgasm, still slicking his abdomen, had seeped through.

"Actually I thought I'd just go like this" Josef dead panned in response, "I think it makes a nice testament to our love, don't you?"

"Josef!"

"Mick, you idiot, I'm joking." Josef laughed and rolled his eyes upwards in faux exasperation, giving Mick a teasing shove and then snaking his arm back around his waist, holding him close. "I love you, you know that" he told him with a soft smile.

"Ditto" Mick replied, smiling happily as he bent his head towards his lips and kissed him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Shower's through there" Mick pointed towards the door leading through to the bathroom, "You can borrow a clean a shirt from me. Just until you get back to the church and find something of your own to put on" he added, rolling his eyes at the _"surely you don't expect me to wear your clothes, Mick"_ look Josef had given him.

"What about you?" Josef asked nonchalantly, as he quickly stripped off his clothes and walked into the small bathroom, with Mick following closely behind, turning the taps in the shower on and adjusting the temperature of the water to a level that was comfortable for a vampire.

"What about me?" Mick shrugged and looked slightly perplexed, leaning against the frame of the door and watching as Josef stepped under the shower spray, his gaze lingering of the musculature of his back as the water formed small rivers of beads on his skin.

"What are you going to wear?" Josef asked over his shoulder, before turning to Mick and flashing him a knowing grin, seeing the way Mick was staring at him like a man who hadn't been fed for a month and was now looking at a sumptuous banquet laid out in front of him. "Mick would you like to join me" he asked, cocking an eyebrow invitingly.

Mick hesitated for a moment, hovering in the doorway as if he were considering what to do, before he laughed and shook his head, hurriedly removing his own clothing and steeping into the small shower cubicle with Josef, pressing him back against the tiled wall as he wrapped his arms around his waist and caressed the small of his back. "What do you want me to wear?" he asked, in-between teasing, warm wet kisses placed strategically along Josef's throat.

"What you've got on looks good" Josef grinned at him, "We could have a nice pagan wedding, naked amongst a circle of standing stones, I'm sure I remember there being some in the fields around here somewhere"

"Gee, why don't we just dance down the street and chant Hare Krishna at the same time while we're at it" Mick pretended to scoff and rolled his eyes, then shook his head and let out a snort of laughter.

"Don't be a smart alec, Mick" Josef chided him teasingly, spinning him around in one sudden fluid movement, reversing their positions, "that's my department"

"And you do it so well, Josef" Mick smirked at him.

"That's not all I do well, Mick" Josef smiled salaciously and arched an eyebrow, then dropped to his knees in front of him, taking his erection in his hand and running his tongue teasingly along the length of the shaft, before wrapping his lips around the head and slowly taking the full length of Mick's cock into his mouth and down his throat.

"Oh shit" Mick gritted his teeth and swayed slightly, leaning back against the tiles, the water from the shower beating down over his face and chest as he gripped the back of Josef's head with one hand, entwining his fingers through his hair and used the other hand to try and steady himself.

Josef was right, he did this well,_ "a little too damn well"_ Mick thought to himself as he felt Josef working his throat muscles expertly around his cock, letting out snarls of appreciation and feeling the first stirrings of an impending orgasm begin to move through him.

Suddenly Josef stopped what he was doing and slid back up along Mick's body in one inhuman fluid movement, pressing on top of his shoulders with his hands and pushing him down onto the floor below.

"I want to fuck you" he explained hurriedly, just as Mick opened his mouth to protest the cessation of the blow job, grabbing one of the small complimentary bottles of conditioner from the soap holder next to the shower and joining Mick on the floor, climbing on top of him and pressing his knees back against his chest. Quickly applying some of the lubricant to the head of his cock and around Mick's arse, he pressed the head of his erection against Mick's entrance and slowly pushed his way inside him, pausing for a moment before slowly withdrawing and then thrusting back into him, adjusting his angle slightly to give more direct stimulation to Mick's prostate as he began to fuck him with slow measured strokes.

Mick growled with pleasure and Josef picked up the pace, increasing the length and speed of his thrusts, throwing back his head and snarling his own pleasure, feeling Mick's fingernails digging into the flesh of his back, as he clung to him and let out alternating purring snarls and growls of arousal.

Moments later Josef felt Mick's body tense beneath him, his back arching upwards as he hung suspended on the brink of orgasm and then slipped over the edge, letting out a single roar of release and sinking his fangs sharply into the skin of Josef's throat. The euphoric sting of Mick's sharp canines biting into him sent Josef spiralling into his own shuddering, snarling climax. Thrusting up into Mick's body one last time, hard, he growled with pleasure and sank his own fangs deep into the side of Mick's neck.

"What's so funny?" Josef asked when it was over and the last pulsations of their respective orgasms had faded away, propping himself up onto outstretched arms and looking down at Mick curiously, as Mick lay beneath him in a fit of the giggles.

"I'm sorry" Mick bit down on his lip and stifled another burst of laughter, "I was just wondering what you discovered in that orgasm"

"The secrets of the universe, Mick" Josef quipped as he smirked down at him and then carefully slipped himself out of Mick's body and got to his feet, pulling Mick up with him at the same time.

"Come on, let's get dressed. We have a wedding to attend" he smiled and gave Mick a quick kiss before sauntering back into the bedroom area of the hotel room and going through the suitcase of clothing Mick had bought with him. "Didn't you bring anything decent with you?" he asked over his shoulder, letting out a small huff of frustration as he struggled to find something of Mick's to put on.

"Well gee, sorry Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and spoke sarcastically, "my main thought at the time of packing to find you, after you'd decided to just up and leave without warning, wasn't really 'hey maybe I should take a nice suit with me just in case we decide to have a completely spur of the moment wedding'. Here" he told him, grabbing one of the more decent shirts he had packed, "just wear this"

"I'm being difficult again aren't I?" Josef laughed and then smiled at Mick ever so sheepishly, as he pulled his arms through the sleeves of the shirt, noting to himself with some surprise that it didn't actually fit half bad, and doing up the buttons.

"Yes, you are" Mick gave him a pointed look and then laughed, quickly stepping into a pair of jeans and pulling one of his long sleeves over his head. "I'll just go wake the others and tell them what's going on" he said then, sitting on the bed and slipping his shoes and socks on.

"Ok," Josef replied and bent down to kiss Mick's lips tenderly, before straightening back up again and insisting that he, "hurry up about it though"

"Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and shook his head, letting out a small huff of mock frustration, "we've been planning to get married for the last how many months? I really think we can wait at least five more minutes"

"No. We can't" Josef smiled and shrugged simply, looking at Mick pointedly, holding his gaze with his own until a small teasing smile began to tug at the corners of his mouth, "I'm just joking" he grinned at Mick and then walked over to wrap his arms around his neck and give him another quick kiss, "Go, wake the others, tell them to hurry up and get dressed. I'll see you back here" he instructed and then pushed Mick towards the door.

----------------------------------------------------

The seven of them, four vampires and three mortals, gathered in the courtyard garden at the rear of St Mary's Church, an hour later, Katherine O'Dwyer standing next to Beth and Ryder, cradling Roisin protectively in her arms and noting to herself, with some concern, the way Beth seemed to be shifting nervously from one foot to the other, seemingly reluctant to be there, as indeed she had seemed from the moment Mick knocked on the door to the hotel room she shared with Ryder England and announced that he and Josef were to be married immediately. If Ryder shared any of Katherine's concerns he wasn't showing it, focused as he was on keeping a tender arm around Beth's shoulder and whispering the occasional piece of light hearted commentary to her regarding Josef and Mick's spur of the moment wedding, noting the incongruousness of Mick's jeans and long sleeve shirt set against Josef's resplendent tailored black suit and complementary red shirt.

"Trust Josef to pack one of his best suits to go running off to another country to find himself" he snickered in Beth's ear, which she responded to by forcing a grimace of a smile and giving a curt nod, as Katherine looked over at her and furrowed her brow, silently offering up a prayer that whatever was bothering the female vampire it wasn't going to interfere with the celebration of the moment.

"Shall we start then?" Father Patrick smiled at the small group, Mick and Josef standing hand in hand, front and centre amidst the semi circle formed around them, and opened his copy of the Roman Ritual to the rite of holy matrimony.

"Dearly beloved" he began.

"Immortal beloved" Josef corrected him.

The old priest responded with a polite nod and cleared his throat. "Immortal beloved" he began again, "You are about to enter upon a union which is most sacred and most serious…"

"Wait" Josef spoke out, interrupting the flow of proceedings, before they'd even started, once more. "Skip that part and just read from there onwards" he let go of Mick's hand and took a step forward, indicating the passages he was referring to with the trace of an index finger along the page of the book Father Patrick held in his hands.

"Would you like to conduct the ceremony yourself, Father Lucias" the old Priest asked in a tone of completely false sincerity, referencing Josef's former title as an ordained Priest of the Holy Catholic Church as he stepped to one side and held the Roman Ritual out in front of him for Josef to take.

"That won't be necessary, Father" Josef inclined his head towards Father Patrick and looked suitably contrite for the moment, stepping back and taking Mick's hand in his once again, as Mick stood there and tried not to laugh.

"May I continue then?" the old Priest bowed his head and smiled with faux grace, then cleared his throat once again and began to read the words of the text before him.

_And so you begin your married life by the voluntary and complete surrender of your individual lives in the interest of that deeper and wider life which you are to have in common. Henceforth you will belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind, one in heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices you may hereafter be required to make to preserve this mutual life, always make them generously._

Out of the corner of her eye, Katherine saw Beth take a halting step forwards, a deep growl emanating from the back of her throat as she listened to the words that were being read out.

"I can't do this, I just can't do this anymore" Katherine could hear her muttering under her breath. Too late, Ryder tried to make a grab for her as she suddenly lunged towards Mick, moving with the inhuman speed of a vampire and grabbing for his arm.

"Mick. No" she roared suddenly, all of the emotions and feelings she had been forcing herself to hold in check for the past few months finally coming to the fore in one sudden rush of pleading fury. She snarled at Ryder to "let go of me" as he quickly reached her and pinned her arms to her side, pulling her off of Mick and holding her back as she kicked and fought against him. "Mick, this is ridiculous" she continued to plead, "You still have feelings for me, I know you do, you just can't admit it. Mick, please you can't marry Josef it's not fair on him, it's not fair on us, just listen to me for god sake Mick" her voice reached a fever pitch of hysteria as she continued to rant and rally against Ryder's hold on her at the same time.

"Get her out of here" Mick gritted his teeth and hissed at Ryder, stepping in front of Josef and placing his arm out as a barrier between him and Beth, fearful that he was about to tear her apart with his bare hands at any given moment.

"Well that was rather dramatic and unexpected" Josef quipped, as he watched Ryder sling Beth over his shoulder and carry her, kicking and screaming, away from them as fast as possible, her haunted cries still echoing through the night.

"Josef, I'm so sorry. I had no idea she was going to do that" Mick started to say, but Josef placed a finger to his lips and halted his words mid sentence.

"Mick, its ok" he told him, offering a quick reassuring smile to the vision of his pale faced and stunned lover standing in front of him, before he reached for Mick's face and cupped his chin in the palm of one hand, holding his gaze steady with his own, "There isn't anything to what she said though, is there Mick?" he asked, studying his expression carefully.

"Josef!" Mick blurted out incredulously, before he took Josef's hand from his face and pressed his lips against his fingers, "You shouldn't even need to ask me that" he spoke earnestly, clutching Josef's head in his hands and drawing him towards him, resting his forehead against his. "I love you and only you, I wouldn't be standing here about to marry you if I didn't. Now would I?" he laughed and shook his head, brushing a finger along Josef's cheek at the same time, before he pressed his lips against his and kissed him.

"That's all I needed to hear" Josef stated simply, as he broke away from the kiss and took a step back, holding Mick at arms length and offering him a slightly off centred smile that made Mick laugh and almost swear in that very moment, he'd fallen in love with him all over again.

"Right, well are you two just going to stand there and make eyes at one another or are we actually having a wedding, because you know this little one is up way past her bedtime" Katherine spoke up a few moments later, offering a pointed smile to no one in particular and gesturing with an incline of her head towards the increasingly restless infant in her arms.

"You're very bossy sometimes, you know that don't you" Josef turned to her and scoffed with mock indignation, drawing himself up to his full height and looking at her with an expression of tongue in cheek haughtiness.

"Runs in the family" Katherine shot back with a cheeky grin, challenging Josef to respond with an arch of an eyebrow.

"Touché" Josef replied, making a slightly over extravagant bow in Katherine's general direction, before he straightened back up again and nodded to Father Patrick to continue on with the ceremony.

"We'll just skip ahead to the actual exchange of vows then shall we?" the old Priest quickly thumbed through the pages of the Roman Ritual in his hands, waiting for Josef to respond before he continued on with the proceedings. He appeared completely unphased by what he had witnessed just before; after all it certainly wasn't the first time he had seen a wedding interrupted by a sudden flurry of emotions coming from the perceived betrayal of a jilted former lover.

"Ok, fine" Josef replied dismissively, his thoughts in that moment focused just on marrying Mick as quickly as possible and dispensing with any further ritual. "Wait" he blurted out seconds later, invoking a collective groan from the remainder of the small group gathered there. "We don't need vows". He took a step closer to Mick, wrapping his arms around his waist as he drew him in for an embrace and pressed his forehead against his once again. "We know how we feel about one another, Mick" he whispered to him, "why ruin the moment with a meaningless recitation of words"

Josef paused for a moment, eyes closed, letting his rate of breathing fall into synch with Mick's, before he took a breath and lowered the sound of his voice to a level only audible to another Vampire. "Everything I am and everything I own" he told Mick then, "I would give up in an instant for you"

"You frighten me sometimes, Josef" Mick replied, matching the level of his voice to Josef's, his hand trembling slightly as he caressed the back of his neck and entwined his fingers through Josef's hair.

"Why?" Josef took a step back and looked into Mick's eyes with a questioning expression, his head tilted to one side as if he were trying to work out some great mystery, before he traced the pad of a finger over Mick's mouth and then drew him towards his waiting lips, kissing him deeply and then repeating the question again, "Why? Why do I frighten you sometimes, Mick?"

"Your intensity of feeling, Josef" Mick swallowed audibly and tried to keep his voice from cracking with emotion, "How the hell do you expect me to live up to something like that, it's impossible"

"I don't expect you to live up to anything, Mick" Josef replied, pausing to kiss Mick tenderly on the lips once again, "All I expect is for you to keep doing what you've been doing for the past fifty years, that's all"

"Oh yeah" Mick let out a small burst of laughter, "and what would that be?"

"Just be with me, always" Josef responded back to him simply.

"You make it all sound so easy" Mick sighed, struggling to keep the sudden rush of emotions that Josef's words had instilled in him under control.

"Does it need to be complicated?" Josef's question was simple in its challenge and Mick found the only answer he could honestly give was "No", taking a step away from Josef's embrace he turned to Father Patrick and with a sudden burst of joyful laughter insisted that he immediately,

"Declare us married"

"Don't you want to exchange rings or anything?" Father Patrick smiled in reply and then let out a small "Ah" as he saw the ever so slightly bewildered expressions that had fallen over Mick and Josef's faces. "You didn't think that far ahead, did you" he chided them with a teasing laugh.

"Not really" they glanced at one another and responded almost in unison, Mick offering a rather sheepish smile to both Katherine and Father Patrick as Josef stood alongside him and furrowed his brow, stroking his chin absentmindedly and thinking exactly what to do about this particular oversight, mentally kicking himself at the same time for forgetting something as obvious as wedding rings, in his haste to be married to Mick sooner rather than later.

"Do you have a cord, a piece of string, a rope or something?" Josef raised his head and directed the question towards Father Patrick a few moments later.

"Why? Married life getting to you already?" Father Patrick couldn't resist making the joke, and then quickly cleared his throat when he saw the look of almost righteous indignation that had crossed over Josef's face. "I'm sorry" he said, quickly swallowing back the urge to make any further jokes at either Mick or Josef's expense. "Yes I do, of course I do. Inside in my office, I'm sure there's some string left over from last years Christmas toy run. Will that do?"

"Perfect" Josef smiled graciously as the old Priest quickly took his leave, returning after a short while waving a rather haphazardly wound ball of red string in the air and announcing to no one in particular, "Found it"

"Is anyone going to tell me exactly what we're planning to do with that string?" Mick asked, looking around in complete confusion at the faces of those gathered around him.

"Tie our wrists together" Josef replied matter of fact, as if the purpose of the string needed no explanation, and reached for Mick's arm, clasping his hand around his wrist and indicating for Mick to follow suit. "It's called handfasting" he added with a slightly dismissive wave of his freehand, "It was popular back in my day, where do you think the term tying the knot comes from?"

"Oh, ok then" Mick laughed and shook his head, grasping hold of Josef's wrist. "You know if you told me fifty years ago that one day I'd be standing in a churchyard, in Ireland, marrying my best friend by having a piece of red string tied around our wrists I would have called you crazy" he paused and then smiled at Josef, leaning over to plant another tender kiss on his lips before he finished with, "and I couldn't be happier".

"Have the two of you made whatever vows you wish to make to one another?" Father Patrick gently interrupted the moment.

"Yeah, we have" Mick was the one to reply, his eyes never leaving Josef's as Father Patrick stepped forward and quickly wrapped a piece of the red string around both their wrists.

"I love you" Josef whispered to Mick as the old Priest bound them together.

"Ditto" Mick whispered back.

"Then, by the powers vested in me I declare you husband and…I mean Vampire and…" Father Patrick hesitated, his tongue stumbling over the words as he struggled to think of what exactly to declare the two male Vampires in front of him he had just wed.

"How about you just declare us married, like he said before" Josef grinned at him cheekily and pointed to Mick.

"Alright then, by the powers vested in me" the old Priest repeated, "I declare the two of you to be married. You may kiss the…I mean you may kiss..."

"Each other?" Josef offered with tones of sarcastic helpfulness.

"Yes, that" Father Patrick laughed in response, as Josef drew Mick towards him and crushed his mouth against his lips.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"You were rather restrained back there" Mick lay back in Josef's arms and rested his head under his chin.

They had shared one quick drink, red wine with a nice side chaser of blood for them and just wine for Father Patrick and Katherine, after the end of the wedding ceremony, then decided to retire for the evening. Father Patrick had very generously offered them the use of one of the more spacious guest rooms, usually reserved for visiting high rank clergy, and, as Josef had rather devilishly whispered in Mick's ear, one hand trailing over the small of his back and along his arse, they certainly didn't want to waste any time letting the real festivities of the night begin.

"Hmm, what?" Josef replied distractedly, kissing his way along Mick's neck and caressing his chest at the same time.

"With Beth" Mick's breathing hitched in his throat slightly as Josef's hand found it's way down his stomach and gripped his erection.

"What did you expect me to do Mick" Josef gave a half scoffing laugh and wrapped his fingers tighter around the shaft of his cock, working his hand up and down it's length with slow, teasing strokes "kill Beth at our wedding, completely disrupt proceedings even more than what they'd already been disrupted? Please I have far too much class for that"

"Says the Vampire whose idea of a romantic first time was to drag me into the backroom of a club and hump my leg" Mick teased in reply.

"I didn't hear you complain at the time, Mick" Josef nipped lightly at the skin of Mick's neck with his fangs and continued to work his hand up and down Mick's cock, varying the speed of his strokes every now, bringing him to the brink of climax then dropping him back down again and again as Mick shuddered and writhed with pleasure beneath him.

"True" Mick let his mouth fall open, a soft snarl of appreciation eliciting from his parted lips.

"Mick, do you think we could possibly talk about this another time" Josef stated nonchalantly, as he disengaged Mick from his embrace and pushed him down onto the mattress below, swapping positions and climbing on top of him in one fluid movement, "I wasn't really planning on our wedding night being a threesome you know." He laughed and lowered his lips to Mick's, probing his mouth apart with his tongue as he drew him into a deep kiss, his hands caressing along the sides of Mick's body and down over his thighs as he moved his hips against Mick's, erections pressed together in a slow tantalising dance.

"Josef" Mick panted beneath him, feeling the pressure of his erection straining for release against the friction of Josef's body pressing against it, "are you planning to actually fuck me or are you just going to tease me all night"

"Why, Mick?" Josef pushed himself up onto outstretched arms and looked down at Mick with a wicked grin playing over his lips, cocking one eyebrow in a seductive challenge "do you have somewhere else to be"

"What do you think?" Mick scoffed with mock exasperation and reached up to wrap his arms around Josef's neck, pulling him back down towards his waiting lips.

"Well in that case," Josef replied salaciously, the words half swallowed by Mick's mouth pressing against his, "we've got all night then."

He broke away from the kiss and shimmied his way down Mick's body, taking his erection into this mouth and working his lips along the shaft as he swirled his tongue over the head, two fingers pressing against his perineum at the same time.

"Oh fuck" Mick snarled and reached down to clutch Josef's head with one hand, the fingernails of the other digging into the sheets of the bed as he arched his back and thrust into Josef's mouth.

Josef continued working his lips and tongue over Mick's cock, pausing for the briefest of moments to moisten two fingers with saliva before pressing them against Mick's hole and pushing them inside his passage, quickly locating his prostate gland and massaging it with firm upward pressure. As soon as he sensed Mick was close to orgasm, he backed off and waited for him to come down from the high of impending climax, keeping him hovering on a knife edge of release until Mick wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to stand it.

"Josef, please" Mick gasped, the words coming out in a half strangled sob of need. "Please for fucksake just…"

He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence, in one rapid inhuman movement Josef moved back up along his body and pressed Mick's legs against his chest, stopping for only the briefest of moments to quickly apply some extra lubrication from the small tube on the nightstand next to the bed, before he pressed the head of his erection against Mick's arse and entered him with one sudden thrust.

Mick growled and wrapped his legs around Josef's waist, hands clutching his back and fingers digging into his flesh as Josef slowly withdrew and then thrust back into him, repeating the motion over and over again, keeping the rhythm slow at first then increasing the pace faster and faster.

Mick's growls of pleasure turned to almost continuous shuddering snarls when Josef moved into a kneeling position and placed one hand under his arse, raising Mick's hips up off the bed to give him more leverage as he slammed himself into Mick's body at an ever quickening rate. He adjusted the angle of Mick's hips slightly, allowing his cock to press against Mick's prostate almost repeatedly as he held him up with one arm and began to fuck him as hard as he knew Mick could take it, his other hand reaching around to grip Mick's cock, pumping him from base to tip over and over again.

Mick threw back his head and bit down on his lower lip, fangs fully extended, drawing blood which Josef wasted no time bending his head towards and lapping up with his tongue as it ran down Mick's chin. He felt Mick's body stiffen beneath him, muscles straining desperately as he hung suspended on the brink of climax and then let out a velociraptor roar of release, sinking his fangs sharply into the side of Josef's neck as he clung to him shuddering and snarling as wave after wave of climactic pulsations tore through him and his fluid spilt over Josef's hand and flowed onto his stomach.

Moment's later Josef flew off the edge with him, the euphoric sensation of pain mixed with pleasure as Mick bit into his flesh pushing him over the brink and sending him into his own shuddering release, matching Mick's snarls of pleasure with his own as he sank his fangs sharply into the top of Mick's shoulders and rode out the orgasm that ripped through him hard enough to almost take his breath away.

"Fuck" Josef gritted his teeth and hissed under his breath when it was finally over. He let go of Mick's body, lowering him back down onto the mattress below and then collapsed on top of him, the weight of his body pressing against Mick's chest, their hearts beating together as Mick stroked the back of Josef's neck tenderly and kissed the top of his head.

"I love you, you know that don't you" Mick whispered to him, still slightly out of breath, a few minutes later.

"Yeah I kind of got that memo already" Josef laughed in reply and turned his head towards Mick's, nuzzling his forehead under Mick's chin, "and even if I hadn't the whole 'us just getting married' thing kind of gave it away as well"

"Did you mean what you said back there?" Mick asked then, his voice rising plaintively in the stillness of the room.

"What part exactly?" Josef carefully withdrew his softening cock from Mick's arse and rolled off to one side, propping himself up on his elbow and regarding Mick with deep affection as he traced a finger along the side of Mick's face and then bent his head towards his mouth and kissed him, once, lovingly on the lips.

"That you would give up everything you are and everything you own for me"

"Are you having a Mick moment my beloved" Josef let out a slightly scoffing laugh and planted a quick kiss on the side of Mick's face, then cupped his hand under Mick's chin and turned his face towards his "Mick, look at me" he said gently, "I meant every word I said, ok?"

"Ok" Mick nodded in reply, swallowing audibly and letting out a soft snarl as he felt Josef's hand reach down between his legs and begin to stroke his cock, feeling himself starting to stiffen once again under Josef's expert fingers.

"Come on" Josef whispered in his ear as he continued to work his hand up and down the shaft of Mick's growing erection, "it's my turn now"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mick awoke early the following morning, pushing away the bags of ice that had been packed around his body after he had fallen into a deep sleep the night before, and clambered out of bed. He stopped for a brief moment and bent down to give Josef a quick kiss, whispering a "good morning" to him and smiling fondly as he heard Josef mutter something that sounded remotely like "I love you", and then quickly dressed and made his way, bleary eyed down to the kitchen.

He was surprised to find Father Patrick already dressed in his vestments, seated at the table and tucking into a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast.

"I was planning to make that for you" Mick smiled and pointed to the plate in front of Father Patrick, "as a thank you for letting us spend the night here"

"Mick don't be ridiculous" Father Patrick laughed and shook his head, "Josef, your good self, Katherine and dear little Roisin are my honoured guests here, it is I who should be waiting on you, not the other way around. There's some blood in the fridge by the way," he indicated his head towards the large metal door refrigerator in the corner of the room, "help yourself" he looked around and then whispered conspiratorially, "I managed to swindle some from the local blood bank. It was getting to be a bit too draining having Josef feed from me all the time, no pun intended"

"None taken" Mick stated with a laugh as he went to fetch a bag of blood from the fridge and poured some of the contents into a glass he found on the side of the kitchen sink.

"Can I ask you something personal, Mick?" Father Patrick regarded Mick with a slightly curious look as Mick took a seat at the table opposite him.

"Sure, I guess" Mick smiled and shrugged, taking a sip of crimson fluid from the glass in his hand and preparing himself for the usual question of "what's it like to drink blood" that he expected was coming.

"You and Josef, those" the old Priest hesitated for a moment, searching for the right word, "noises you make, when you're…um…together" Father Patrick paused momentarily once again and offered Mick a polite smile, "do you always sound like that?"

It wasn't exactly the question Mick had expected and he found himself suddenly very interested in some imaginary spot on the table in front of him.

"What noises" he muttered half to himself, rubbing at the pretend blotch with a distracted finger, before he raised his eyes back to meet Father Patrick's and saw him regarding him with an expression that said _'come on Mick, I may be a Priest but I'm not stupid'._ "I take it you heard us then" he said after a few moments more hesitation, offering the old Priest a rather sheepish smile at the same time.

"My dear boy" Father Patrick laughed and reached across the table to pat Mick's hand affectionately, "every cat in the neighbourhood heard you, old Mrs Fitzgerald's deaf as a post dog, three houses down, heard you and I believe the tigers in the zoo, three miles up the road, were particularly impressed. I'm glad the two of you had fun" the old Priest quickly added, changing the tone of his voice to a more sincere level, "you deserve it. I hope the two of you will share many happy life times to come"

"Thank you" Mick gave a brief nod and smiled simply in reply.

"You're more than welcome Mick St John, or is it Kostan now?"

"We haven't really decided that yet" Mick laughed and picked up the glass in front of him, quickly draining the rest of its contents.

"Fair enough" Father Patrick gave Mick's hand one last affectionate squeeze before he stood up from the table and politely excused himself. "I need to work on today's sermon" he said almost apologetically, feeling a little regretful that he was unable to sit and converse with the younger Vampire for at least a little longer.  
"What's the topic for the day?" Mick asked after Father Patrick's retreating form with casual interest and then blushed, as much as any Vampire could blush, and let out a rather embarrassed burst of laughter when Father Patrick paused at the door of the kitchen, turned back towards him and stated with tongue in cheek simplicity, one eybrow cocked and a more than slightly teasing grin on his face,

"All creatures great and small"

----------------------------------------------------------

"You're awake" Mick smiled happily as he returned to the room he had shared with Josef the night before and found him sitting up in bed, back against the headboard, regarding him with an expression on his face that said_ "Dear god in heaven Mick you have no idea how much I love you"_. Actually Mick knew exactly how much Josef loved him, considering he shared the exact same sentiment when it came to his own feelings and he quickly crossed the floor of the room and joined Josef on the bed, straddling his still naked body and leaning down to kiss him tenderly on the lips as responded to Josef's unspoken declaration and whispered the word "ditto" to him.

"Where have you been?" Josef asked with casual interest, caressing his hands along the sides of Mick's body.

"Kitchen, with Father Patrick, he had breakfast, I grabbed a glass of blood" Mick shrugged then grinned down at Josef cheekily and said "Why? Are you checking up on me, husband?"

"Don't call me that" Josef's tone was suddenly very matter of fact and Mick shot him a sideways glance, then placed his hands on his hips and demanded to know

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like it, it doesn't suit me" Josef replied in the same matter of fact tone of voice, offering Mick a nonchalant smile and a quick shrug of the shoulders as if he expected Mick to be perfectly understanding about his dislike of the term.

"Oh I'm sorry, Josef" Mick responded with mock contrition, setting his mouth into a sarcastic smile as he did so, "I was under the impression that we'd just gotten married, my mistake"

"Don't be like that, Mick" Josef laughed and took Mick's hands from off of his hips, bringing them to his lips and kissing his fingers tenderly, "I just don't like the term, it makes me sound like some sort of prize breeding bull"

Mick opened his mouth to say something and Josef quickly threw him a look which said "Don't you dare" and then gave a satisfied smile when he saw that Mick had immediately backed down. He was sure Mick had been about to make some sort of wisecrack about Josef being his prize breeding bull and he would have been right.

"What am I supposed to call you?" Mick asked then.

"Same as what you've called me for the past fifty years, Mick" Josef declared simply in reply.

"What? Beloved?"

"Well that too" Josef laughed and sat up to give Mick a quick kiss, "I meant partner though" he clarified just as he wrapped his arms around Mick's neck and laid back down again, pulling Mick down on top of him. "You know strictly speaking" he whispered in his ear salaciously, as his hands explored the muscular planes of Mick's back, "you could say we're still on our honeymoon."

Josef gripped the back of Mick's shirt with one hand then and pulled it over his head in one swift practised move, reaching between them with the other hand and hurriedly fumbling with the button and zipper on his jeans.

"You know Father Patrick heard us last night" Mick said, looking at Josef pointedly as he rolled off the bed and stood up to remove his jeans, before stripping out of the remainder of his material accoutrements and re-joining Josef on the bed.

"He did?" Josef replied with passing interest, more intent on exploring the curves of Mick's arse with his hands whilst he nipped at the skin of his throat lightly with his fangs.

"Yeah he did" Mick propped himself up on outstretched arms and gave Josef another pointed look, "So I would suggest we try and keep it down a bit, ok" he told him then and waited for Josef's agreement.

"Fine, agreed" Josef's response was slightly dismissive as he pulled Mick back down towards him and crushed his lips against his mouth. "I'll try not to fuck you so hard" he told him a few moments later with sarcastic wantonness, breaking away from the kiss and quickly rolling over, taking Mick with him and swapping their positions so that he was on top.

Mick laughed and quickly shifted Josef over to one side, before rolling over once again and moving back on top of him, "You're fucking me are you, Josef?" he teased, as he bent his head towards his ear and whispered the words to him, using the weight of his body to pin Josef face down onto the bed.

"Not by the looks of it Mick" Josef laughed back at him, as he heard Mick scrabbling with one hand on the side cabinet next to the bed for the remainder of the lubricant they hadn't used the night before and then felt some of the slippery fluid being applied around the entrance to his arse with the wipe of a finger.

Mick reached under Josef's body with one arm, raising his hips up towards him as he took hold of his cock with his freehand and pressed the head of it against Josef's anus and then pushed the full length of himself inside him with one sudden thrust, eliciting a snarl of approval from Josef's lips.

"Keep it down for fucksake" Mick hissed in Josef's ear, as he withdrew slowly and then thrust back into him, repeating the motion over and over again, each time a little faster and harder until he was fucking him at full pace and Josef was letting out deep growls and snarls of pleasure beneath him.

"How the fuck do you expect me to keep it down when you're back there doing that, Mick" Josef hissed back at him in reply, continuing to snarl through gritted teeth as Mick's cock hit against his prostate on every stroke.

When Mick grabbed hold of Josef's erection and began pumping him with firm stroked from base to tip, Josef's vocalisations grew louder, forcing Mick to clap a hand over his mouth to try and muffle the sound.

"You really know how to keep a man quiet don't you Mick" Josef scoffed and let out a snort of laughter as he pulled Mick's hand away from his mouth and then sank his fangs into Mick's wrist instead.

The sudden sharp euphoric rush of pain as Josef bit into his flesh tipped Mick unexpectedly over the edge and sent him spiralling into an almost immediate orgasm. Mick lost all semblance of control as his climax ripped through him and he let out a single loud roar of release and then sank his fangs into the back of Josef's neck, shuddering and snarling with pleasure as he rode out the orgasm and bit into Josef's flesh.

Josef had just enough time to remove his fangs momentarily from Mick's wrist and quip to him, with a slightly mocking laugh, "So much for keeping it down Mick," before his own orgasm took hold of him and he flooded Mick's hand with his fluid and sank his fangs back into Mick's wrist.

"Are we going home soon?" Mick asked quietly after the last pulses of their respective orgasms had died away and he'd had a chance to wipe his hand off on the sheets, before rolling over to lie next to Josef and propping himself up on one elbow

"Soon" Josef replied, turning over onto his back and taking Mick into his arms, pausing for a moment to kiss the top of his head as he caressed the side of his face with his hand and then added quietly, "There's just something I need to do first."

"Yeah me too" Mick swallowed a nervous lump in his throat and buried his head into Josef's shoulder, as if he could somehow hide from what he knew was coming and didn't want to face.

"Beth?"

Mick responded with a silent nod of his head and Josef heard a breath catch in his throat just as he swallowed away another nervous lump and then let out a deep sigh of breath.

_"Good luck with that Mick, I have a feeling you're going to need it_" Josef thought to himself as he ran his fingers through Mick's hair and kissed the top of his head once more. He didn't dare say that out loud though. Instead he placed a hand under Mick's chin and tilted his face up towards his lips, kissing him once softly before he whispered "I love you, whatever happens don't forget that" and then drew his arms tighter around Mick's shoulders and held him close until Mick closed his eyes and fell into a restless sleep alongside him.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"How long was I asleep for" Mick blurted out as he woke up with a sudden start and quickly got out of the bed where he had fallen asleep next to Josef and hurriedly started getting dressed.

"A while" Josef turned over onto his side and watched Mick as he scrambled around for his clothes, "a few hours, I don't know." He shrugged then and tried to give Mick a reassuring smile to tell him not to worry about it.

Nevertheless, Mick was worried and no amount of heart melting puppy dog looks coming from Josef was going to change that fact. He wasn't looking forward to the conversation he was about to have with Beth, a conversation he was desperately trying to resist opening with "What the hell is your problem", knowing that as much as he wanted to, doing so would just make an already bad situation worse.

Doing up the last few buttons on his shirt and zipping up his jeans, before quickly stepping into his shoes, he sat back down on the bed next to Josef for a moment and let Josef sit up and wrap his arms around his waist. Josef rested his head against Mick's back and Mick reached down and gave Josef's forearm a gentle squeeze, a gesture meant to convey both his affection and gratitude.

"What are you going to say her" Mick heard Josef ask him then and it took a few moments for him to respond, in all honesty he hadn't really thought that far ahead.

"I don't know" he replied quietly, and then gave a half hearted shrug "take it as it comes I guess"

"Might I suggest" Josef offered helpfully, as if he had read Mick's thoughts, "that opening with anything along the lines of 'what the hell were you thinking' may not be a good idea"

Josef laughed only half teasingly after that and then scooted himself around to sit next to Mick, draping an arm around Mick's shoulder and guiding his head down to his lap, letting Mick lie there for a moment and gather his thoughts as Josef brushed his hand through Mick's hair and stroked the side of his face with a finger. He loved him and problems with Beth or not, nothing was going to change that. In the distant past he had often wondered, when faced with couples who had been together for decades stretched at a time, how vampires, or humans for that matter, actually managed to do it. How they managed to spend so long with the one person by their side and still fall in love with them on a daily basis. For the most part he had stopped wondering that with Mick a long time ago, but every now and then a moment they shared together gave him pause to stop and think, marvelling to himself in quiet contemplation just how it was possible to love someone so completely, even after fifty years by their side.

"You'll be fine" he added hurriedly, before Mick had a chance to respond to what he had said just before and reassuring him that he would be waiting for him when he got back

"I know" Mick sat back up again and ran his hands through his hair and then rubbed his palms over his face and then turned to give Josef a quick kiss on the cheek, telling him that he loved him and smiling to himself as he heard Josef respond with "ditto".

"Mick?" Josef called out after him, as Mick stood up and started heading for the door.

"What?" Mick turned back towards Josef and waited for him to speak, standing paused with one hand resting on the handle of the bedroom door.

"Can you be back here at eight 'o' clock tonight?" Josef asked casually, although it wasn't so much a question as it was a direct request.

"Sure. Why?" Mick looked at Josef and furrowed his brow for a moment, wondering what was happening at eight 'o' clock that Josef needed him to be there for.

"No reason, it's just important is all" Josef replied with an attempt at a nonchalant shrug.

Mick resisted the urge to point out the obvious contradiction in terms Josef had just used. Judging by the look on Josef's face, despite the casual shrug he had given, Mick could see that whatever the reason and whatever was happening eight 'o' clock that evening was very important to Josef.

"I'll be there, I promise" he reassured him once again with an earnest smile, just before he turned away again and walked out the door

.-----------------------------------------------------------

Mick hesitated for a moment, drawing in a breath to steady his nerves and then knocked on the door of the hotel room where Beth was staying with Ryder. He couldn't smell or hear Ryder though, only Beth. He wondered for a moment exactly what had happened between Beth and Ryder after Ryder had had to drag Beth off in the middle of his wedding to Josef. He decided whatever it was it couldn't have been good, or easy on either of them.

His train of thought was broken by the clicking sound of the lock on the door as it opened and Beth stood there facing him, or rather facing towards him and looking anywhere but directly at Mick's face, refusing to meet his gaze. Finally she allowed herself one brief glance into his eyes and then stepped back, holding the door open wider and motioning for him to "come in".

Mick's movements were stiff and hesitant, beneath his attempt at a nonchalant exterior, as he followed Beth into the small hotel room and took a seat perched on the edge of an armchair that stood just opposite the double bed in the middle of the room.

Beth took a seat on the edge of the bed facing him, her hands twisting in her lap as she shifted uncomfortably and waited for Mick to say something. In the end it was her who broke the silence first.

"I suppose you want to talk about what happened the other night"

Beth cleared her throat and then swallowed nervously after that, waiting for Mick to respond.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he blurted out the first words that came into his mind and then mentally kicked himself.

_"Of all the things that you should have said, Idiot St John, that was probably not one of them"_

Beth shot him a dark look then, the first time since he had arrived that she dared to hold his gaze for any length of time.

"I made a mistake Mick, alright" she snapped in reply.

"No Beth, not alright" Mick shot back, immediately taking the challenging position to Beth's defensive. He saw the hurt look in her eyes, behind that mask of defensive and immediately softened his approach. "I'm sorry" he told her, the tone of his voice gentler this time, "I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just…" his voice trailed off as he tried to find the words he was looking for, "it was my wedding for fucksake Beth" he finished finally, unable to keep his from rising an octave as he thought of how close Beth had come to ruining his betrothal to Josef almost completely.

"Yeah, your wedding to Josef" Beth spat mockingly in reply, fixing her mouth into a cruel line.

"Yes. My wedding to Josef, the one I'd been planning with him for the past couple of months"

He sat and stared at Beth for a moment, shaking his head in disbelief before repeating again, this time with a stabbing gesture of his finger, "My wedding to Josef" then added pointedly "Josef, the man who has been my partner for the last fifty years, Beth."

"You don't need to remind me, Mick" Beth's voice was suddenly very small then, almost childlike as she chewed on her bottom lip and fought back the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks at any moment.

"Well obviously I do" Mick was about to say, but stopped himself when he saw the look of bitter hurt on Beth's face. He moved to try and comfort her instead, getting up from the seat he was sitting on and joining her on the edge of the bed, placing what was supposed to be a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Talk to me" he told her, trying to keep the tone of his voice as reassuringly even as possible.

Beth was silent for a moment, lost in the distance as she struggled to gather her thoughts. When she finally spoke, she spat the words out with a viciousness that Mick hadn't heard from her since that night in Salzburg when he had bodily thrown her out of the house he shared with Josef.

"I hate being a Vampire" A dark look crossed over Beth's face then and she shrugged Mick's hand off her shoulder, as the floodgates of emotion opened and she hurriedly continued on, the words spilling out one over another. "I hate everything about it. I hate drinking blood, I hate not being able to stay out in the sun, I hate that I'll never have children, never get to know what it's like to grow old with someone. I hate it Mick and the only reason I've accepted it is because I was still holding out hope that we could share it together." She took a breath then and waved a hand in the air in a gesture of frustrated dismissiveness and quickly added, "There I've said it"

"Beth" Mick's expression was utterly incredulous, "We've been through this before. I thought we had this sorted out by now?"

"Yeah well" Beth offered Mick a weak smile and made another gesture with her hand in the air, as if she were trying to wave the conversation off, "I thought so too, Mick. Seeing you and Josef at your" she hesitated, struggling to repeat the word 'wedding', "well let's just say reality has hit home" she finished, letting out the breath she had been holding and getting up to walk over to the window of the hotel room, staring out over the car parks and fields that lay below.

"Maybe it was a mistake for us to try and be friends so soon" Mick turned towards Beth and tried to say helpfully then, realising his own mistake in saying those words when Beth suddenly spun around and shot back at him,

"Well you'd know all about mistakes, wouldn't you Mick"

"I didn't come here to fight with you about the past, Beth" Mick's voice was low and ridden with guilt in that moment, he distracted himself by picking pieces of imaginary lint from the quilt cover on the bed beneath him, "and I've already said I'm sorry a hundred different ways for what I did back then" he added defensively.

"Oh and I suppose that makes it alright then, Mick" Beth lashed at him, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"No of course it doesn't" Mick went on the defensive then, folding his arms across his chest, "but there's nothing you or I or anyone else can do to change what happened, so you just have to deal with the hand you've been dealt."

"What like you did when Coraline turned you against your will, Mick" Beth replied, "You used to hate being a Vampire too you know, or had you forgotten that?"

"No I hadn't forgotten Beth" Mick was starting to grow increasingly frustrated with the tone of the conversation; it wasn't getting either one of them anywhere. He stood up and walked over to her, determined to try and get her to see reason, "You're right" he told her, "I used to hate being a Vampire, but Josef changed all that for me. He made me accept what I am. I don't hate being a Vampire, Beth, not anymore".

The tone of his voice was meant to convey the sentiment that everything was going to be alright, if he could overcome his self hatred at what he was then Beth would to, in time. Beth would hear none of it though.

"Yeah well I do Mick," she spat the words out at him just like before, "I hate being a Vampire and I can't see that changing in the foreseeable future."

The conversation was going nowhere fast and Mick quickly tried to shift tactics, wanting to try and focus the discussion on something that would bring Beth out of her reverie of self loathing.

"What about Ryder?" he asked her, "Doesn't he make you happy. I thought everything was going well between the two of you?" he looked at her questioningly then and added, "Where is Ryder by the way?"

Beth offered him another half hearted smile and shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn't have cared less and at that point Mick had finally had enough.

_"When did you become such a bitch?"_ he thought to himself darkly, quickly suppressing such thoughts and answering out loud instead with, "Ryder is our friend, Beth, Josef's and mine," he clarified, "Don't you dare hurt him. If you don't share the same feelings that he has for you then you tell him and you do it soon. It's not fair on him to be strung along like this, Beth" Mick paused for a moment and then added, as if he felt it needed to spelled out "And make sure you let him down gently"

Beth had the good sense to look at least a little guilty at the cold manner in which she'd responded to Mick asking her about Ryder. Lowering her eyes to the ground and shifting from one foot to the other she muttered under her breath, "I will Mick".

They both fell into an uncomfortable stillness then, neither one really knowing what else to say to the other. Finally Mick broke the silence, checking his watch and making the announcement that he had to go. They had been going around in circles for the last four hours, if he left now he had just enough time to make it back to the Church, and whatever it was Josef needed him to attend, by 8 pm.

"Bad things happen, Beth" he told her gently, just before he turned to leave, "It's just part of life, you learn to deal with it or you send yourself crazy"

"What life Mick" Beth snapped at him in response, her face twisted into a mask of bitterness, "I have no life Mick. You saw to that"

Mick looked at her for a moment, not knowing what else to say to her. Then without saying another word he spun heel and walked out the door.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Mick made it back to the Church at exactly one minute past eight 'o' clock. He paused for a moment at the wooden door of the entrance, silently hoping Josef wasn't going to quibble with him over a mere one minute's tardiness, after all, he figured, Josef would surely have to understand his need to stop along the way and actually take some time to calm down after his discussion with Beth.

He needn't have worried, as he pushed the door open the first thing that struck him was an image of Josef dressed in the black cassock and cope of a Priest performing a funereal rite and chanting in a language he didn't understand, but rightly presumed was Latin, whilst making, what seemed to his eyes, a series of strange and archaic ritual gestures. Whatever it was Josef was doing it was obviously occupying his attention enough that he wasn't going to notice Mick slipping quietly into the Church a mere fraction past the time he said he would be there.

_Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.  
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.  
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,  
Et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem  
Exaudi orationem meam  
Ad te omnis caro veniet._

"What's he doing?" he whispered to Katherine as he slid into the pew next to her.

"He's performing a Requiem mass for Miriam" she replied, bouncing the infant Roisin on her knee and trying to soothe her as she began to fidget and grizzle at the idea of having to be quiet for any extended period of time.

"Miriam, his baby sister?" Mick asked in a low voice, watching the scene in front of him with a mixture of bemusement and fascination, aware of what a Requiem mass was but never having seen one performed with his own eyes.

"No Mick, Miriam the imaginary dancing donkey" Katherine hissed at him out the corner of her mouth, prompting Mick to shoot her an annoyed look of embarrassment and fall silent for a few moments.

_Dies irae, dies illa  
Solvet saeclum in favilla,  
Teste David cum Sibylla._

Quantus tremor est futurus,  
Quando judex est venturus,  
Cuncta stricte discussurus

"What's he saying?" Mick leant over to Katherine and whispered the question to her, forgetting his momentary embarrassment from before and trying not to cringe too obviously, when she quickly translated the words of the Latin prayers Josef was chanting.

"Remind me never to die" Mick muttered under his breath and shook his head, before leaning over to ask Katherine yet another question regarding what was taking place in front of them.

"It's a censure Mick, it has incense in it" Katherine preempted Mick's question, before he could ask it.

"Oh, ok and-"

"Mick, shut up" Katherine hissed out the corner of her mouth at him as before and then changed her mind and leant over to ask, "I thought you were Catholic?"

"No, what made you think that?" he whispered back to her, at which point Josef turned around and gave both of them a pointed look to be quiet.

Mick offered him a sheepish smile of contrition then and Josef's expression immediately softened as he looked at Mick and mouthed the words "thank you" to him, before turning back towards the Altar and continuing the ceremony.

_Hostias et preces tibi, Domine  
laudis offerimus  
tu suscipe pro animabus illis,  
quarum hodie memoriam facimus.  
Fac eas, Domine, de morte  
transire ad vitam.  
Quam olim Abrahae promisisti  
et semine eius._

Mick bowed his head at that point and pretended he was praying, crossing his legs at the same time and silently willing away the erection that has sprung unbidden the moment Josef had looked at him and his mind had immediately flashed to the time he had fucked Josef on the floor of the lounge in Salzburg…

_"and he moaned to me in Latin and I couldn't understand what he was saying but dear god it sounded hot and he was wearing that costume and…Oh shit you idiot, stop thinking about it"…_

Mick gritted his teeth and rested his head on the bench in front of him, concentrating on thinking of such un-arousing matters as the actual English translation of the Latin text that Katherine had given him earlier. He knew Josef would be able to smell his arousal, hear the way his heartbeat had stepped up a notch and his breathing seemed to hitch in his throat. He mouthed a quick silent prayer that Josef wouldn't make too big a deal of it when all this was finally over.

"Oh well" he thought to himself then, "at least this is taking my mind off the crap with Beth"

At the thought of the recent unpleasantness with Beth he felt his cock immediately soften, breathing a sigh of relief as he laughed to himself wryly and thought, "Well at least she's good for something, gotta give her credit for that at least"  
_  
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna  
in die illa tremenda  
quando coeli movendi sunt et terra,  
dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem._

Tremens factus sum ego et timeo,  
dum discussion venerit atque venture ira:  
quando coeli movendi sunt et terra.

Mick spent a few moments more with his head bowed in a silent pretence of prayer, before sitting back upright again just in time to hear Josef chant the last words of the rite.

_Chorus angelorum te suscipat  
et cum Lazaro, quondam paupere,  
aeternam habeas requiem._

Josef completed the ritual then, taking a moment to kneel in front of the altar and offer up what Mick rightly assumed was a private prayer for the soul of his baby sister, before he stood up and walked over to greet Mick.

"Thank you for coming" Josef said with quiet sincerity as Mick quickly from the pew and into the aisle to return his greeting, taking a quick step back when Josef went to embrace him and flashing him a look which said,

_"Josef I swear to god if you touch me while you're wearing that outfit you will so end up bent over that altar up there with my cock buried in your arse, so just don't"_

Josef gave Mick a knowing smile and nodded his understanding, before saying "I'd better go and get changed then hadn't I" and raising his eyebrows in a gesture to indicate that he knew exactly what effect his robes were having on Mick.

"Are you coming" he paused at the exit into the private chambers of the Church and turned back towards Mick, shaking his head and laughing to himself when he saw Mick immediately bid a very distracted and hurried farewell to Katherine and Father Patrick before breaking into a near sprint to catch up with him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You know that was supposed to be a solemn and respectful moment Mick" Josef chided him gently as they lay naked in bed together, still slightly breathless and sticky from the frantic and hard fucking they had just engaged in, Josef having to insist repeatedly to a rather over eager Mick that 'no he couldn't possibly wear the vestments for him, because it wasn't a costume'.

"I know, I'm sorry" Mick looked at Josef contritely, then kissed him on the cheek and asked in a simple tone of voice, "Do you feel better now that you've laid her to rest"

"Hmm yeah I guess" Josef shrugged and stared up at the ceiling looking momentarily distracted and lost in thought.

"What?" Mick turned onto his side next to Josef and propped himself up on his elbow.

"I don't know" Josef let out a breath and rolled over to face Mick, mirroring his position, "I suppose it felt like I was just reciting the words and going through the motions" he admitted.

"Well I'm sure Miriam would have appreciated it anyway" Mick tried to reassure him as he reached out to run a finger gently down the side of Josef's face.

"I hope so" Josef nodded in quiet reply before changing the subject and asking, a little too eagerly, "Hey do you want to do something with me tomorrow?"

"Of course" Mick laughed at Josef's sudden enthusiasm and leant in to give him a quick kiss before asking, "What did you have mind?"

"I don't know" Josef shrugged again, "I just thought we could spend a day actually enjoying each other's company, out of bed" he quickly added when he saw the bemused look on Mick's face that said _"and what do you think we've been doing these past days, Josef"_

Mick laughed then and gave Josef a slightly sheepish lopsided grin "Alright, sounds good to me" he told him and then bought the conversation back to the previous subject of Josef's performance of a Requiem Mass.

"Josef please promise me if I ever die that you won't perform that mass for me"

Josef looked taken aback for a moment, regarding Mick with a sideways expression of curiousity before he furrowed his brow and asked "Why?", not that he expected to ever be performing such a rite for Mick, he had just been under the assumption that Mick hadn't been able to understand the actual words that he had chanted earlier.

"Katherine translated some of it for me" Mick quickly explained, looking at the slightly confused expression on Josef's face, "it was just rather…"

"Morbid?" Josef finished for him.

"Yeah that" Mick laughed and looked relieved that Josef didn't seem to take his assessment of the Requiem Mass as an insult.

"I suppose it is" Josef gave another shrug and them smiled at Mick gently, "but you needn't worry" he reassured him, "First of all I doubt you're going to shuffle off the immortal coil anytime soon and second of all," he paused for a moment and held Mick's gaze with his own, "if you died I wouldn't be performing anything for you"

"What are you planning to die alongside me" Mick scoffed at him and rolled his eyes, making a joke about_ "throwing oneself on top of funeral pyres"_ at the same time.

"Maybe" Josef smiled casually and offered yet another halfhearted shrug of his shoulders before laying his head down on the pillow next to Mick's and closing his eyes.

"Oh come on Josef," Mick blurted out, as Josef opened his eyes to look at him for a moment, "nobody loves someone that much, not even you"

"It was quite a common practice in India at the turn of last century" Josef stifled a yawn and closed his eyes again.

"Well we're not in India at the turn of last century, Josef" Mick stated with rising annoyance at what he considered to be a complete lapse of reason on Josef's behalf, "so I will repeat that again, nobody loves someone that much, not even you"

The only reply he received was the sound of Josef's quiet rhythmic breathing as he fell asleep.

-------------------------------------------------------

"Where have you been?" Mick sat up and blinked the sleep from his eyes the following evening at dusk, trying to focus his still rather bleary vision on the image of Josef standing in front of him, immaculately groomed and looking like he'd already been up for hours.

"Nowhere in particular, just out" Josef shrugged dismissively, and then cleared his throat. "Here, these are for you" he muttered the words almost as a statement, as he rather haphazardly shoved a bouquet of roses under Mick's nose.

A momentary look of surprise passed over Mick's face as he took the roses from Josef's hand. He muttered a quick "thanks" and then raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a sideways questioning look at the same time. Josef could be very romantic when he wanted to be, Mick had seen that demonstrated more times than he could remember in the fifty years they had been together, but the whole hearts and flowers routine wasn't his usual manner. Of course in true Kostan style he hadn't done anything by half measures either. The roses were two dozen, all told, of the most exquisitely formed and brilliantly red coloured blooms that Mick could remember seeing, off hand, and no doubt they had cost Josef a small fortune.

"Thank you" Mick repeated again, a little clearer that time. Looking at Josef as he pretended to pick bits of non existent lint of the sleeves of his suit coat and then adjusted the sleeves of his shirt, it was obvious to Mick that he wasn't supposed to make a big deal out of this; even so he couldn't resist ribbing him about it just the tiniest bit.

"So when was the last time you bought me roses, Josef" Mick grinned and cocked his head to one side, eyebrows raised, "It was 2014 if I remember correctly?" he reminded him, still keeping the same, ever so slightly teasing, grin on his face, "I believe we were living in Hungary at the time. We had a fight. You went on a nice little chemical freshie bender and staggered home at 4 am clutching an entire rosebush in your hand and trailing dirt and petals all over our nice hardwood floors."

"It was a very nice rosebush, Mick" Josef protested, looking perfectly indignant, "and I did clean up the mess. Look" he huffed and went to snatch the bouquet from Mick's hands, "if you don't want these, just say so."

"Don't be like that" Mick chided him with a small laugh, quickly moving the bunch of roses in his hand away from Josef's grasp before standing up to plant a quick kiss on the side of his face and saying, "I love them and thank you, again"

"Yes, well" Josef cleared his throat once again and waved a hand dismissively to say, _'really Mick it's not a big deal'_. "I just figured you could do with something nice to cheer you up after yesterday. How did that go anyway? You haven't spoken about it yet. I figure it didn't go well?" he asked after a moment's pause.

Judging by the dark look of annoyance that flashed over Mick's features, Josef knew his assumptions were correct.

"Go have a shower and get dressed" he told him gently, indicating his head towards the ensuite bathroom adjoining the room and trying to offer Mick a reassuring smile. "We'll go out and find something nice to do, take your mind off things."

"What did you have in mind?" Mick asked over his shoulder, as he quickly stripped off his clothes and headed into the shower.

"I don't know" Josef replied after him, with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, "grab a couple bags of blood and some Scotch and find somewhere nice to sit and have a drink, I guess"

"Sounds good to me" Mick's voice drifted out of the bathroom, slightly muffled by the sound of running water.

"I'll just put these in some water," Josef half mumbled in response and picked the bouquet of roses up off the bed, where Mick had left them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I just don't get it" the frustration in Mick's voice was clear as he sat with his back resting against one of the many old oak trees, that dotted the Irish landscape, with Josef sitting in front of him and reclining back in his arms.

They had wandered the streets of the city together for an hour or so, before stopping off to savour the sights and sounds of an Irish pub in full swing, before picking up a bottle of Scotch to mix with the blood Mick was carrying in a small satchel bag slung over his shoulder and heading up one of the local hills to spend some quiet time sitting against an oak tree under the stars and enjoying each other's company.

"What don't you get Mick?" Josef sipped the glass of blood scotch he held in one hand and absentmindedly stroked Mick's forearm around his waist with the fingers of the other.

"Beth" Mick spat the word out in a sigh of frustration, "I really thought we'd moved past all the 'I still have feelings for you, well you can't have me' crap."

"Ah" Josef nodded and smiled to himself knowingly, "I see. So that's what's going on"

"Yeah" Mick admitted reluctantly, after a few moments hesitation. "And now she's decided she hates being a Vampire as well" he added bitterly, a distinct edge of guilt and self reproval creeping into his voice.

"Hey, come on" Josef turned around to face Mick, straddling his lap and reaching up to hold the sides of his face in his hands "stop that. We've been through this before ok. You might have turned her, but it is not your fault that she's now decided to carry on like a prize brat and refuses to accept the situation she's in. I mean it's not like we haven't bent over backwards to try and help her" he added with a distinct note of annoyance, lowering his hands and wrapping his arms around Mick's waist instead.

"I know" Mick went to say then, but his words were cut off by the sound of Josef's voice telling him, "Besides, Beth isn't our only concern right now"

"You mean Katherine's situation?"

"Exactly" Josef responded with an almost reluctant sigh of his own and then made a dismissive gesture behind Mick's back with his hand, "let's not worry about it now though. We're supposed to be having a pleasant evening together, not worrying about the women in our lives" he told him, adding more than a slight dose of irony to the word 'women' as he said it.

He leaned forward then and pressed his lips against Mick's, probing his mouth open with his tongue as he caressed the planes of his back with his hands. Off in the distance, coming from one of the farmhouse residences that lay sprawled around the Galway countryside, the strains of an old song by the band Garbage, faintly reached Mick's ears.

_"I will sell my soul for something pure and true, someone like you"_

"Would you?" Mick asked, just as Josef broke away from the kiss and began to tease the skin of Mick's neck with his mouth and fangs, nipping gently at the sensitive underside of his jaw, before running the edge of his tongue along the side of Mick's throat.

"Would I what?"

"Sell your soul for me?"

"Probably" Josef responded with casual distraction, as he began to move down Mick's body, undoing the buttons of his shirt and kissing his way along his chest and abdomen as he did so, stopping when he reached Mick's lap and working on the buttons and zipper of his jeans.

"What? Is that before or after you throw yourself on top of my funeral pyre" Mick scoffed at him teasingly and reached down to stroke the top of Josef's head with one hand.

"Oh shut up, Mick" Josef muttered under his breath and rolled his eyes in faux annoyance just as he managed to release Mick's cock from the constraints of his pants and then wrapped his lips around the head.

Mick let out a snarl of appreciation and closed his eyes, resting his head back against the trunk of the tree behind him. He stayed like that for a few moments, letting out small growls of pleasure as he felt Josef's tongue swirl over the head of his cock and his hand gripped the shaft and pumped him with firm even strokes, until a sharp cracking sound, that seemed to come from somewhere in front of him, snapped him out of his blissful reverie.

He opened his eyes only to be greeted by a rather unexpected sight. It was a cow, the sound Mick had heard having been one of its hooves stepping on a pile of fallen twigs. It stood in front of him now, its big bovine eyes looking vaguely at him as if he, as it lazily chewed a mouthful of cud.

"Bessie" Mick hissed at the beast, using the only name he could think of to call a cow off the top of his head, as he tried to get its full attention so that he could shoo it away.

"What did you just call me?" Mick heard Josef blurt out then, as he stopped his administrations on Mick's cock and sat up to confront him with hands on hips, a more than slight look of shocked indignation on his face.

"Not you, that" Mick rolled his eyes and pointed to the farm animal standing in front of them.

"It's a cow, Mick" Josef deadpanned with mock seriousness, after he turned his head towards what Mick was pointing at.

"I can see it's a cow, Josef" Mick gritted his teeth and hissed in response, "What the hell is it doing standing in front of us though"

"It probably wandered away from one of the local farms, there are at least half a dozen around this area somewhere" he shrugged dismissively and then stifled a laugh and added in a completely insincere tone of voice, "It's alright my love, Josef will get rid of the scary cow for you", just as he reached out to pat Mick's arm with false reassurance.

Mick let out an indignant huff of breath and rolled his eyes as Josef turned his head back towards the beast and gave a single sharp snarl to get it to leave, watching it turn tail and start to wander away back to wherever it had come from.

"See, all fixed" he turned back to Mick and grinned, just before he shook his head and muttered "I don't know why you couldn't have just done that yourself" and then cocked his head to one side and asked "Now do you want me to continue what I was doing or not?"

Mick rolled his eyes once more and then pushed Josef's head back down onto his lap, letting out a snarl of pleasure when he felt Josef wrap his lips around his erection once again. A few minutes later he was clutching the top of Josef's head with one hand and thrusting his cock deep into the back of his throat, as he growled with release and grabbed for Josef's arm, sinking his fangs sharply into the flesh of his wrist and snarling blissfully as he rode out his orgasm.

"Come on" Josef instructed him softly a short while later, as he stood up and held his hand out for Mick to take; helping him to his feet once he had given him sufficient time to recover his senses after his climax, "We should go try and get some sleep, we've got some long days ahead of us"


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Can't sleep?" Josef slid into the pew next to Mick and draped an arm across his shoulder, lazily tracing circles on the back of his neck with the fingers of his hand.

He had awoken at 5 am and reached over to find an empty space in the bed next to him. Considering neither one of them had actually gotten into bed before 2 am, Josef correctly surmised that Mick had lain awake next to him before tossing aside the bags of ice packed around his body and staggering out of bed to find somewhere to sit alone and brood.

"He's probably off conducting his own internal one man judge and jury of himself right this very moment" Josef thought to himself with a wry smile as he too climbed out of bed, feeling a little hazy from his own lack of sleep, wrapped a robe around his naked body and set off to look for Mick.

Sitting next to him now, in the stillness of the Church as Mick sat staring at the altar in front of him, a look of dark reverie on his face, Josef could tell he was right, he knew Mick too well by now. He had been sitting here for however long, replaying the events of the past over and over in his mind and mentally declaring himself guilty for every conceivable mistake or wrongdoing he could possibly think of.

"_Merciful death, how you love your precious guilt_" Josef thought as he continued to caress the back of Mick's neck with tender strokes of his hand, remembering the line from an old novel he had read, ages ago now it seemed, remembering how he had whispered those very words to Mick before now, another time Mick had seen fit to pass judgement on himself.

Out loud he asked, "Did you get any sleep at all"

Mick muttered a non committal reply and shook his head.

"Come on" Josef reached across to pat Mick's leg reassuringly, before half rising out of the seat and turning to offer Mick his hand, "come back to bed and get some more rest"

"Does he ever answer you" Mick ignored Josef's outstretched hand and continued to focus his attention on the altar in front.

"Who God?" Josef sat back down and glanced at the altar himself, before turning to face Mick, "Well if he did" he continued, quietly matter of fact "I certainly wasn't listening"

"I thought you'd made your peace with him" Mick gave the tiniest scoff of laughter and turned his head towards Josef, offering him a half hearted smile.

"I have" Josef shrugged in reply and then cocked his eyebrows and let out a slight sniff of laughter, "but it's not like I'm going to start inviting him over for poker night with the boys. Why?" he added gently "what are you trying to ask him"

"Just how in the hell I'm supposed to make sense of what's going on right now" Mick blurted out, throwing his hands in the air before placing the pads of his fingers against his temples. "Everything was fine Josef, she was fine" he continued, massaging the sides of his head with small circular strokes, as if somehow the action would rub away his confusion.

"Mick, you can't know that for sure" Josef told him quietly as he took Mick's hands away from the sides of his head and pressed the tips of his fingers to his lips, "some people…some Vampires, are just very good at pretending everything's ok when it's not"

"You know I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn't turned her" Mick looked down at the ground for a moment, before turning back to face Josef, entwining his fingers with his and smiling briefly for a moment as he felt Josef's thumb stroke the back of his hand.

"She'd be an old lady by now Mick" Josef looked at him and smiled simply, "and you'd be watching her die"

"And us? What would have happened there?" Mick asked then.

"I don't know Mick, you tell me" Josef held Mick's gaze with his own as he continued to stroke a thumb across the back of Mick's hand.

"I can't imagine my life now without you in it" Mick replied, after the briefest of hesitations.

"Well there's your answer then" Josef smiled and stood up, pulling Mick to his feet along with him, "Come on" he instructed him as before, "come with me. If you can't sleep, you can at least have a shower and prepare for the day ahead. We've got things we need to attend to".

Mick let out a soft sigh of breath and nodded in silent acquiesce, falling in line behind Josef as he allowed him to take his hand and lead the both of them back to the small room in the Church that they had been sharing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I should go and try to talk to her again, try and get her to see reason" Mick tilted his head up towards the spray of the shower, letting the water roll over his face and down his neck.

"Why, what good will it do Mick?" Josef replied, standing behind Mick with one arm wrapped tightly around his waist, the other draped over Mick's shoulder drawing soap lathered circles across his chest with slow movements of a hand. "Besides" he offered a slight shrug, shifting his arm from Mick's waist and caressing his hip as the other traced a languid path along his stomach "you can't, she left yesterday to fly back to Salzburg"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mick twisted his head around and looked at Josef with an expression on his face something akin to bewilderment, "was Ryder with her?"

"I didn't want you running off after her" Josef shrugged again, the same slight nonchalant shrug as before, and shifted his hand from Mick's hip up to his face, caressing the planes of his jaw before tilting his chin towards his face and pressing his lips against his, "and yes Ryder was with her. Ryder was the one I spoke to" he added, breaking away from the kiss and concentrating his attentions on Mick's neck instead.

"How was he?" the words came out in a slightly staccato hiss as Mick's breathing hitched at the sensation of Josef's fangs nipping lightly at the sensitive skin of his throat.

"Well he wasn't exactly whistling Dixie, if that's what you mean" Josef replied matter of fact, feeling a distinct tremor run along Mick's spine as he lapped at the small droplets of blood his fangs had created, just before the tiny pin prick wounds healed, with the tip of his tongue.

"You should have told me" Mick mumbled half to himself after a moments pause and then let his head fall back against Josef's shoulder more, the slightest purr of a snarl eliciting from his parted lips as Josef's other hand moved from his stomach down to his cock, his fingers lightly encircling his erection and caressing along his length with slow measured strokes.

Josef ignored Mick's muttered reply, concentrating instead on working his hand over Mick's cock, increasing the pressure of his grip, sliding his hand along the length of his erection, stroking him from base to tip at an ever increasing pace until Mick was thrusting into his hand in time to the rhythm of his movements and letting out short staccato snarls of pleasure, biting down on his lower lip to try and keep from making too much noise.

"_Let it go Mick_" Josef bent his lips towards the side of Mick's face, his breath fanning hot over his ear, and silently pleaded with him, "_Please just let it go, don't do this to yourself again, don't do this to us again_"

Mick's mouth found his then, the kiss a slightly awkward scraping of fangs and panting open mouthed breathing. Josef shifted his hand on Mick's neck back down to his chest, wrapping his arm around him tightly, holding him steady as Mick's thrusts into his hand grew more & more frantic and uncontrolled, feeling the pressure and release of Mick's body pressing back repeatedly against his own erection, the stimulation enough to bring him to the brink of his own orgasm.

They both hit the peak at the same time, bodies hanging suspended on a knife edge, muscles tensing, before they fell into the abyss together, snarling out their mutual release and sinking their canines into each others flesh, their fluid flowing out of them in wave after wave of hot sticky climactic pulsations as they panted and moaned each other's names repeatedly and bit down even harder with their fangs.

"Feel better?" Josef whispered in Mick's ear a moment later, after he'd given the both of them time to recover from their respective orgasms.

Not waiting for a response he quickly manoeuvred himself under the direct spray of the shower and washed Mick's semen from his hands, letting the water flow over his abdomen at the same time, washing away the traces of his own climax. He felt Mick reach for him again, felt strong hands gripping his shoulders and spinning him around, Mick's arms encircling his waist and drawing him into his body as he pressed his forehead to his and whispered his name almost like a prayer, the word coming out sounding strained and slightly desperate.

"Josef"

"I know Mick, ditto" Josef whispered in reply, pausing for a moment to trace a finger along the side of Mick's face and over his lips before giving him a quick tender kiss and breaking away from the embrace.

"Come on, we'd better hurry up and get dressed" he instructed Mick then, stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel, "Katherine should be awake by now. We can't put this off any longer."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Josef sat at the head of the table looking for all the world like he was holding court, or so Mick thought as he sat opposite him and watched as Josef studied the photographs in his hand with a carefully contrived sense of detached interest.

"Tell me about them" Josef said simply as he pushed the photo's back towards Katherine, on the other side of the table to where Mick was seated.

"What do you want to know exactly?" Katherine replied with a shrug, tilting her head to one side and chewing on her bottom lip almost nervously, as if she half expected the pictures in front of her to come to life and exact their retribution for daring to break the unbreakable code of silence. A code, Mick figured, had surely been instilled into her repeatedly over the years.

"Anything you can tell me" Josef replied, hands clasped, his forefingers pressed against his lips, forming the shape of a pyramid, his eyes focused intently on Katherine, yet looking past her at the same time. It was a gesture and a look Mick had seen before when Josef was planning to hunt quarry. Almost as if he had begun to stalk his prey before he'd even laid eyes on them in real time.

Somewhere in the distance Mick could hear Katherine's voice telling Josef what he needed to know, catching brief words and phrases here and there, '_2 am_', '_club_', '_always_', '_like clockwork_'. He didn't need to know the details, Josef would take care of that for them, he always did. Mick's mind drifted instead towards memories of the first time he had hunted with Josef by his side, truly hunted, as equals, partners, not just the tagalong newbie when Coraline had been showing him the ropes.

_It had been the winter of 2009, a week before Christmas to be precise, 6 months after Paris. Mick had still been taking cases back then, still working the Private Eye route despite Josef's insistence that he had enough money to keep the both of them in the lap of luxury for at least the next millennia, damn it._

One case in particular from back then would always remain in his memory, not the least because it was the catalyst for his first true hunt with Josef; the first time he had really known what it was truly like to accept his Vampire nature, but also because the case had been a particularly hard one to work. A child abuse case, a particularly cold and vicious serial predator that had preyed on the innocence of children too young to be exposed to the sort of sick games this monster wanted to play with them. He had listened to hour upon hour of victim impact statements, heard details of the crime that he had later shared with Josef, which had actually turned Josef's stomach as much as is it did Mick's. He had gathered painstaking amounts of evidence, surveillance, hours of recording secret wiretaps, used every means at his disposal to expose this animal for what he truly was. Then he had turned everything over to the L.A.P.D, who in turn handed it over to the L.A District Attorney's Office, who decided to Prosecute forthwith. And the monster had been bought to trial and then walked free, on a Technicality. A goddamn technicality. 

Mick could almost feel the bile rising in his throat at the memory of that.

_"You trusted the mortal system and it failed you" Josef had told him when he had burst through the door of their L.A mansion and begun to rant and rail at the unfairness of it all. "I've said to you before that human's don't know how to take care of their bad guys"_

And then he had offered Mick a smile that would have made the steeliest of any mortal's blood run cold and announced, with a low predatory snarl, "We do this our way now."

And that was how Mick came to find himself one winter's night in 2009, a week before Christmas, prowling through the streets of L.A with Josef, his beloved Josef, newly found and declared partner in unlife by his side, all feline grace and deadly catlike poise, stalking their intended victim.

He had seen Josef in his element that night, the supreme predator, four hundred years of perfectly refined Vampire elegance and god he looked beautiful, all white skin and red bruised eyes the colour of ice cold marble, fangs like polished ivory catching the dull light of the street lamps. And there had been blood, so much blood, and snarling, and sinking of fangs into flesh and a sense of overwhelming righteousness and justice finally being served, properly.

And they had almost fucked right there in that dark alleyway when it was over, smearing blood over each others faces as they panted and snarled and ground themselves against one another, and it should have felt wrong and dirty, down there in the grime of the street beneath them, but it didn't because he was with Josef, his Josef, and dear god the memory of that night was beginning to make him dizzy…

"Mick?" the sound of Josef calling his name snapped Mick out of his reverie, "Mick" Josef repeated, regarding him with a cock of his head and a curious smile, "Hello earth to Mick"

Josef laughed as Mick blinked a couple of times and shook his head. He reached across the table then and stroked the back of Mick's hand with one finger and Mick couldn't suppress the slow growl that had formed in the back of his throat when he did that. Josef offered him a knowing smile in reply and then bared his fangs, ever so slightly, and snarled back at him, the softest purr of a snarl and Mick was positive if Katherine hadn't been sitting there staring at the two of them whilst they engaged in what must have looked like some sort of bizarre Vampire mating ritual, he would have had Josef bent across the table and fucked him like sex was going out of style and Macy's had just announced a door buster, two for the cost of one at warehouse prices, sale on orgasms.

"So is that like the Vampire equivalent of the Indian love call or something?" Katherine snickered, half to herself, prompting Josef to flash an indignant look at her and roll his eyes, whilst Mick just sat there and looked sheepish for a moment.

Mick heard Katherine say something in what he assumed was Gaelic then and Josef laughed in response and then quickly translated Katherine's words.

"She says we shouldn't be so coy and indignant, it's not like half the neighbourhood hasn't already heard us howling at the moon at night"

It was Mick's turn to look indignant then; "We're Vampires not Werewolves" he scoffed, trying to cover his embarrassment at being reminded, yet again, that he and Josef really didn't know how to 'keep it down'.

"She knows that Mick" Josef laughed in reply and leaned over to kiss him, "it's just a turn of phrase"

"I know that Josef, but…"

"Come on" Josef stood up then, interrupting Mick's protest and reaching for his hand to pull him to his feet. "We hunt tonight. We need to get some rest before then, I believe a trip to the local morgue is in order. Mick and I need to get some decent sleep in a proper freezer, for restorative purposes before we hunt" he quickly explained to Katherine, when he saw the slightly confused and bewildered expression that passed over her face when he mentioned the word 'morgue', "and entrance to anywhere or anything can always be bought at the right price" he added, making a rather grandiose sweeping bow and then grinning at her with boyish Kostan charm.

"And what about me?" Katherine fixed Josef's gaze with her own, setting her mouth into a determined line, "what's my entry fee?"

Josef straightened back up and walked over to Katherine "Absolutely nothing, this one's on me" he told her, placing a reassuring hand on her arm.

"What about the Vampires though? The others I mean" Katherine looked at Josef, unable to hide the concern on her face. "You're not going to take care of them are you?"

"I can't Katherine" Josef suddenly looked very apologetic, "Believe it or not we have rules in our community, I can't just kill another Vampire in their own city. Not unless my life or the life of someone close to me was directly threatened. I can deal with the mortals, the others I can protect you from" he quickly added when he saw she was about to offer some sort of protest.

"How long for?" she asked then, a slightly bitter edge to the tone of her voice, "Until one of them actually tries to kill me and your _allowed_ to kill them or until I'm a withered old woman and miraculously die of natural causes?"

"However long it takes" Josef replied matter of fact, giving her arm one last quick reassuring squeeze before he turned to go.

"Josef?" Katherine called out after his retreating from, stopping herself just in the nick of time before she used the term "Uncle" instead. "Whatever happens I don't want to die, ok?" she told him in all earnest when he turned back to face her, the expression in her voice and in her eyes making it clear to him what she was really trying to say.

Josef exhaled a slow breath and then swallowed nervously, averting his eyes from Katherine's and muttering a hurried reply of "Let's hope it never comes to that"

He turned again to leave, walking over to where Mick stood waiting for him and wrapping his arm around Mick's waist.

"One more question" Katherine called out after him once more, waiting for Josef to turn back towards her one final time. "Do Werewolves exist?"

"Well I suppose if we exist, then Werewolves are possible too" Josef replied, after he had exchanged a brief glance with Mick and they had both stifled a laugh at the look of rapt fascination on Katherine's face, "but if they do I've never met one" he finished with a polite nod and a gracious smile.

"Ever the charmer aren't you Josef Kostan" Mick whispered to him after that, as they both turned together and walked out the door, arms encircling each other's waists.

"Oh shut up Mick" Josef scoffed and rolled his eyes in faux indignation, before he leant over and tilted his head to plant a quick kiss on Mick's lips.

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"Come on" Josef announced, his tone slightly more cheerful than what Mick actually wanted to hear, having just been woken up from a deep sleep.

Josef pulled the door of Mick's cooler open, sliding the metal trolley out with a resounding clank, and then followed up with an overly dramatic singular clap of his hands.

"Time to get up lover. We've got places to go, prey to hunt, bad people to kill" Josef trailed a hand in the air and then grinned.

Mick sat up and swung his legs over the side of the trolley, still a little groggy. He blinked a few times and then shook his head, scruffing his fingers through his hair at the same time, as he tried to brush away the last remnants of sleep. He sat for a moment and watched, as Josef strutted and paced in front of him, looking for all the world like a demented peacock.

"Admit it, you love this don't you" Mick thought , flashing Josef an adoring look just as Josef completed one length of the room and turned heel to face him.

He didn't mean the hunt itself of course, Josef was over 450 years old after-all and it wasn't as if he'd never hunted or enjoyed hunting before now. Mick had introduced him to the concept of the righteous hunt though, or the 'fangs in full effect' hunt as Josef liked to half jokingly refer to it. In such circumstances, both of them were able to unashamedly indulge their inner vampire without regards to such mundane things as morals, or personal codes of conduct, or potential feelings of guilt and remorse. After-all, when all was said and done, their victims did have it coming to them...in no uncertain terms.

"Are you getting dressed or are you just going to sit there and look tempting" Josef quipped, sauntering over to Mick and wrapping his arms around Mick's neck. "Carpe Noctem." Josef bent his head to Mick's ear and whispered, snarling softly to him.

Suddenly Mick was very much awake.

"That got your attention didn't it" Josef laughed and stood up, Taking a step back he folded his arms across his chest and arched an eyebrow, regarding Mick with a knowing smile.

Mick felt his breath catch in his throat. He drew in a quick inhalation of breath and, for a few moments, found himself seriously struggling against the urge to throw Josef to the ground, tear the immaculate suit from his perfectly honed physique, and fuck the smug little grin he was giving him clean off of his devilishly handsome face.

"Not now Mick" he heard Josef saying to him then, the tone of his voice and the expression on his face suddenly serious. "We've got work to do first. Not that I don't appreciate the view."

Josef cocked his head and grinned, as he handed Mick the bag containing the change of clothes that Josef had practically demanded Mick bring with him.

"You need to be dressed properly" Josef had told him, his tone more than a little haughty in it's insistence, "We can't risk being turned away at the door, or worse, drawing attention to ourselves because you decided that turning up in jeans and t-shirt was perfectly acceptable club attire"

Mick let out a sniff of laughter at the way Josef had spoken the word 'work', as if he were verbally encasing it in quotation marks, and the rather salacious tongue in cheek remark he had made about enjoying the view, and then took the bag from Josef's outstretched hand.

Mick dressed hurriedly, purposefully avoiding Josef's gaze as he did so, still unsure about any level of control he might or might not be able to maintain if he were to spend too long contemplating his _husband_.

A smile tugged at the corners of Mick's mouth as he thought of that word, _husband_. Josef may not have liked the term but _he_ still liked to think of him that way, although he knew he'd probably be pushing his luck to actually express such sentiments. He laughed quietly to himself and shook his head. If Josef wanted to think being referred to as his, _husband _, made him sound like a prize breeding bull, then so be it. He certainly wasn't going to argue the point with him.

"_Tease, maybe?_" Mick laughed to himself once more. "_Argue? Definitely not_"

"You look good" Josef regarded Mick's outfit, black pants and black shirt to match his black suit ("_black hides stains better Mick_" he had told him), with an approving look. "Are you ready to go" he asked Mick then.

Drawing closer, Josef waited for Mick to nod his agreement and then draped his arm loosely around Mick's waist and guided him out the door, into the dimly lit streets that awaited them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The club, a small place tucked away down one of the many dark alleys of Galway, and decorated in what Josef assumed was supposed to be some sort of post modern industrial style...in other words it looked like someone had gone on a rampage and ripped large sections of the place apart, leaving bare pipes and iron dangling strategically from the walls and ceilings...was in full swing by the time they got there, a little after two am.

Getting past the security on the door without much more than a quick cursory once over and a lilting Irish voice, that sounded rather incongruous on the overly muscular frame, telling them to 'have a good night'...to which Josef rather sarcastically responded with a raise of his eyebrows, "Oh we plan to.", they moved inside and made their way quickly up a set of narrow stairs. Moving down a short corridor, they came to door of the room where Katherine had indicated they would find Patrick Brogan and the rest of his band of now walking dead men.

They paused outside the closed door for a moment, sniffing the air for the scent of their prey, listening closely to the movements of those inside. Downstairs the DJ had just started playing Sonic Destroyer, the whirling sound of the track sounding like some sort of demented organ grinder having a fit to Mick's ears. He laughed to himself and mentally rolled his eyes at what he considered to be a rather strange fascination that human's seemed to have with the past, considering this particular track was now old enough to almost be thought of as 'classical music'.

And then suddenly Josef was Vamping out, a snarl eliciting from his lips, and it was on.

Josef reeled back and knocked the door down with one swift powerful kick, indicating for Mick to stay behind him as they burst through the now non existent doorway. Mick had about five seconds to smile to himself and admire Josef's over protective gallantry towards him, before one of the mortals in the room pulled out a small pistol and opened fire.

The would be attacker gasped and stammered in terrified disbelief, as he saw Mick's face, and watched as the bullets struck his chest. The only effect they seemed to have on this nightmare standing before him, was to cause a slightly annoyed expression to pass over it's face.

Over in the corner of the room, Josef had already dispatched two victims. A pair of half witted oaths, they had merely stood and looked at each other with slow witted bewilderment, watching as this unholy creature descend on them like something out of a phantasmagorical nightmare and then sank it's fangs into the neck of one, draining blood with snarling greedy gulps, before snapping the neck of the other with one well aimed flick of it's powerful wrist.

Josef shoved the oaf whose neck he had just broken off to one side like a broken rag doll and wrapped his arm tighter around the other's shoulders. Holding him close, almost tenderly, he sank his fangs deeper into his neck and massaged the vein there with his fingers, using a soft squeezing motion to draw out the last dregs of blood.

Josef looked over at Mick, his own fangs sunk deep into the neck of his victim, the man who had foolishly thought mere bullets would be enough to stop one of the undead. Purring and whimpering noises elicited from Mick, as he sucked at the blood flowing from the two small wounds his bite had created. The sound sent shivers down Josef's spine.

Mick raised his eyes to Josef's, and curled his lips in a beguiling sneer.

They stayed like that for a few moments, each watching the other feed as if they were engaging in a dance of seduction across a crowded room.

Then Josef caught the retreating form of Patrick Brogan out of the corner of his eye. He was trying to make his escape, crawling on his hands and knees across the floor towards the hole in the wall where the door used to be, desperately hoping he would go unnoticed by whatever the hell demons had just entered his domain.

Dropping his lifeless prey to the floor, he moved with the terrifying, inhuman, speed of a Vampire in full flight, and grabbed the hapless man by the scruff of the neck.

Lifting Brogan off the floor, with one powerful upwards movement of his arm, Josef held him out in front of Mick.

"Hi, how ya doing?" Mick quipped, raising his eyebrows and cocking his head to one side, as he grinned maniacally at the soon to be dead man dangling from Josef's outstretched arm, legs kicking helplessly in midair.

Micl took Brogan's arm gently in his hand and bowed his head towards his wrist. "Don't worry." he told him, purring with seductive menace. "I'll be gentle."

"But I won't be." Josef whispered in Brogan's ear and then snapped the man's neck to one side, hissing to him in Gaelic. "For my family." He let out a triumphant, predatory, snarl then and sank his fangs deep into Brogan's jugular, tearing away chunks of flesh with the force of his bite.

Josef lowered the dying man's form to the ground, fangs still embedded in Brogan's neck, and snarled with delight when he sensed Mick move up to join him.

Mick's tongue lapped at the smears of blood on Josef's mouth and fangs, fingers entwining through Josef's hair, as he gripped the back of Josef's head and lifted his face towards his. Growling into his mouth, Mick crushed his lips against Josef's in a heated kiss.

Clinging onto each other tightly they rolled as one, in a tangled heap of fangs and limbs, away from Brogan's prone form. They listened as Brogan gasped and spluttered his last living breath, and then Mick was stretched out over Josef and Josef was letting himself be pinned by the weight of Mick's body.

Mick snarled, burying his face in Josef's neck, and began to move against him.

Gripping the back of Mick's neck tenderly with one hand, Josef reached down between their bodies with the other and hurriedly undid the fastenings on Mick's pants, releasing Mick's cock into his hand and curling his fingers tightly around the head.

Josef smiled to himself, as Mick let out a soft snarl of approval and began to thrust into his open fist.

"Come for me" Josef turned his head towards Mick's ear and whispered to him, still stroking the back of his neck and entwining his fingers through Mick's hair, as Mick's thrusts into his hand became more frantic and uncontrolled.

That was all Mick needed to hear in order to push him over the edge.

Josef felt Mick's body tense, Mick's breath coming in short sharp pants of anticipation as he hung suspended on the brink, and then found himself falling headlong into the abyss. Snarling with pleasure, Mick sank his fangs into Josef's neck, and flooded Josef's hand with his fluid, dampening the front of his pants as he rode out the orgasm crashing over him.

"Told you black hides stains better." Josef laughed knowingly, when Mick was spent.

Pushing Mick off of him, Josef stood up. He gave Mick a little longer to recover his senses, and then reached a hand down to help him to his feet.

"Come on, we can't stay here, we have to go." Josef instructed Mick then, indicating that he should make himself decent.

Josef took Mick by the hand and leading them both out of the club, into the dark lit streets below.

They made it as far as the third street lamp from the corner, before Mick finally lost all semblance of control.

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"Was there a Jean Rollins retrospective playing that no one told me about?" Josef rolled his eyes and huffed at Mick, just as Mick suddenly turned and launched himself at him, slamming him up against a nearby wall and devouring his face and neck with snarling, rabid kisses, his hands frantically tugging at the fastenings on Josef's pants.

"Fuck me" he hissed at Josef desperately, fingers still clawing urgently at the front of his trousers as he tried to pin him against the wall and ground his pelvis against his.

"Fuck you?" Josef grabbed Mick by the neck and lifted him off his feet, holding him at arms length away for him, "In the middle of the street and risk being arrested after we've just killed four people? _Not_ one of your better ideas, Mick" he growled at him and lowered him back to the ground, flashing him a warning look to not try anything as he released his grip from around Mick's neck.

For a moment Mick looked like he was about to launch himself at Josef once again and Josef snarled another warning, commanding him to "Relax", giving Mick a curt nod of approval, arms folded across his chest as he stood back for a moment and watched Mick take a few deep breaths and bring himself back under something resembling control.

"Wait until we get back to the Church" Josef told him then, the tone of his voice a little gentler as he reached out a hand and caressed the side of Mick's face, before pushing him back a step, turning away and taking off running at full Vamp speed as he laughed and called out over his shoulder "I'll see you back there, Mick"

"You bastard" Mick hissed under his breath and took off after him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mick finally caught up with Josef just as he pushed open the large heavy wooden doors of the Churches front entrance and stepped inside. Covering the last few feet between them with one swift powerful leap, he caught Josef around the waist and knocked him off his feet, the both of them landing sprawled together on the cold stone floor of the nave.

"Perhaps you'd like to just throw me onto the altar and fuck me there, Mick" Josef quipped to him, rolling his eyes and letting out an indignant huff of breath as Mick panted and snarled on top of him, covering his face and neck once again with a series of frantic kisses. "Oh for fucksake Mick" Josef snapped at him in frustration when Mick suddenly looked at him and grinned, as if Josef's tongue in cheek suggestion was just what he intended to do, "What the hell's gotten into you anyway", he pushed Mick off of him and quickly scrabbled away, getting to his feet and looking down at Mick with arms folded across his chest once again. "You. Bedroom. Now" he commanded him with a pointed look and a raise of his eyebrows.

Mick didn't need to be told twice, in one fluid movement he was on his feet and covering Josef's body with his, pressing himself against him as they staggered together towards the room the guest bedroom they were currently occupying, moaning and snarling into each other's mouths as they tried to co-ordinate kissing and walking in a tangle of limbs at the same time.

"Nothing's gotten into me Josef" Mick protested half breathlessly, in between devouring Josef's lips and tongue with his mouth, "You're my…" he stopped himself just in time.

"I'm your what Mick?" Josef broke away from Mick's embrace for a moment, holding him at arms length, regarding him with a slightly challenging expression as he cocked his head to one side and arched an eyebrow in a gesture of tongue in cheek sarcasm.

"Partner, Josef" Mick mumbled into Josef's mouth as he drew him back towards him and crushed his lips against his once again, "I meant to say partner"  
"Of course you did Mick" Josef muttered back to him sarcastically as they tumbled through the open door of their bedroom and Josef quickly manoeuvred the both of them into the small ensuite bathroom adjoining the room, turning on the shower and adjusting the water to a comfortable lukewarm temperature before helping Mick to strip out of his clothes and shoving him under the spray.

Stripping off his own clothes, Josef joined Mick under the shower and grabbed him around the waist, spinning him to face the other way and pressing him up against the tiled wall.

"Happy now" he whispered to Mick with an expression of slightly cheeky salaciousness, as he reached around to take hold of his cock and began to stroke the length of him with slow teasing strokes.

Mick moaned and nodded his agreement, letting his head fall back against Josef's shoulder as he moved his hips in time to Josef's hand movements. "We should just fuck all the time" he turned his head and half panted into Josef's neck.

"Of course we should Mick" Josef quipped in reply and mentally rolled his eyes, "When we get home I'll turn our house into one giant freezer unit, that way we can just walk around naked all day and night with my cock up your arse continuously. How does that sound?" he finished off with more sarcastic breeze, as he reached for the small bottle of complimentary conditioner on the ledge next to the shower and quickly squeezed some of it's contents onto his fingers.

"Good" Mick nodded enthusiastically and snarled with approval when he felt Josef's fingers slip in-between the cheeks of his arse and quickly apply the makeshift lubricant around his entrance. "It's better than thinking about stuff" he added, half muttering the words to himself as Josef bent him forward and pressed the head of his cock against Mick's anus and entered him in one swift and sudden thrust.

"You have to deal with it sometime Mick" Josef placed a supportive arm around Mick's waist, holding him steady as he bent over him and whispered gently in his ear.

Mick chose to ignore Josef's words, pushing himself back against his hips instead, trying to take more of him in as Josef slowly withdrew and then thrust back into him, starting to fuck him with a series of repeated short hard strokes of his cock as he pressed a hand into the small of Mick's back and bent him forwards more, adjusting the angle of penetration slightly to allow more direct stimulation against Mick's prostate.

"You have to deal with things, Mick" Josef repeated to him, as he wrapped his arm tighter around Mick's waist and leant back to give himself more leverage, thrusting into him at an increasingly hard pace. "You can't just expect me to fuck you into oblivion every time something comes up that you can't handle"

Mick's only response was to snarl and press himself even harder back against Josef's thrusting hips, letting out a panting moan of approval when he felt Josef's hand around his waist reach lower and grab hold of his cock, pumping the length of him firmly from base to tip.

Josef bent forward then and stretched out his other hand towards Mick's face, reaching around his shoulder and pressing his wrist against Mick's lips as Mick's growls of pleasure became increasingly louder and more frantic sounding. Then suddenly Mick was letting a single sharp snarl of release and sinking his fangs into Josef's flesh, whimpering and shuddering with pleasure as he pressed himself back against Josef's hips as hard as he could one final time and rode out the orgasm that was tearing through him.

Josef joined him a few seconds later, snarling out his own release and sinking his own fangs deep into the muscular flesh at the top of Mick's shoulder as he snarled his way through his own orgasm, lowering Mick to the tiled floor beneath them and sinking down with him as the last pulsations of their respective climaxes slowly faded away.

"Mick-" Josef whispered to him a few moments later, after he had carefully withdrawn his cock from Mick's arse and rolled over to lie next to him on the cold tiled floor, wrapping his arms around Mick's shoulders and drawing him into his embrace.

"I know Josef, ok, I know. I'll deal with it" Mick hurriedly replied before Josef had a chance to finish what he was going to say. "Just not now, please" he added, his voice sounding strained as he reached a hand down between Josef's legs and took of hold of his cock, starting to stroke him back to full hardness.

"Mick for fucksake" Josef snapped at him in exasperation, although he wasn't exactly in any hurry to stop Mick's hand movements up and down the shaft of his growing erection. "You cannot possibly want me to fuck you again so soon"

"Why not?" Mick replied, nuzzling his face into Josef's neck and nipping lightly at the skin of his throat with his fangs, "It's not like we've never fucked repeatedly before"

"I know that Mick" Josef sighed and wrapped his arms tighter around Mick's shoulders, burying his face in Mick's hair and kissing the top of his head gently, "it's just…" he hesitated for a moment, trying to think of a polite way to say "_Mick there's a difference between fucking someone repeatedly when you're both in control and fucking someone repeatedly when one of them is very much out of control_", before deciding the direct approach was always best, and suited him better.

"Josef please, just for tonight I want to forget about everything but us, I don't want to have to think about anything" Mick half pleaded with him in response.

Josef finally relented completely after that, quickly disentangling his arms from around Mick's shoulders and standing up, taking Mick by the hand and pulling him to his feet along with him in the same motion.

"Come on then" he told him gently, leading him out of the bathroom and towards the double bed in the adjoining room, "I'll make you forget your own name if that's what you want."

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_Ambrosia_

"Ok Mick" I repeat to myself silently as I lead him over to the bed, "You don't want to have to think about anything right now? Then fine, we will deal with it tomorrow, together, always together. Just for tonight, just for you, I will make you forget your own existence"

"Lie down" I instruct him when we reach the bed, pressing a hand gently down on his shoulder and smiling to myself with self satisfaction when he obeys my direction without protest or question.

I can see shivers of anticipation running along his body, tiny almost imperceptible tremors of muscles as he lies back on the mattress below and waits for me to join him. I hesitate for just a moment, admiring his prone form stretched out before me and them climb onto the bed and lay along side him, reaching a hand up to his neck and caressing my fingers along his throat and down his chest, digging my nails into his flesh ever so slightly and leaving tiny raised red scratch marks at the same time.

I feel his hands go around my neck, pulling me towards him just as I run my hand over his abdomen and down to his cock, running my fingers lightly over the length as he moans softly and crushes his mouth against mine. He tastes like ambrosia to me and his hands are clutching fistfuls of my hair as I fall into his kiss and let myself drown in the sensation of his lips just for a moment.

He says I frighten him sometimes with the intensity of my feelings. Truth be known I frighten myself. I would quite happily sell my soul and walk into the fires of hell for him, I'd never tell him that though, not in so many words at least. Can't let Mick think he's the one who has the upper hand in this relationship.

"No of course not Kostan" I laugh to myself and mentally roll my eyes, knowing my own mind doesn't believe that for one moment.

"I love you" I break away from his kiss and whisper to him then, placing my lips against one ear and then the other, repeating the words to him as I wrap my fingers around the shaft of his cock and start to stroke the length of him slowly. I smile to myself when I hear him whisper "ditto" in response and he arches his back and starts to thrust into my hand.

I pull away from him for a moment, listening to him groan in frustration as my hand releases his cock. Then he opens his eyes and his gaze follows mine, towards the large tin of cooking lard we had to procure from the Church kitchen the other night when we finally used up the last remnants of the lubricant we had with us. I raise myself up onto an outstretched arm and grin down at him, arching one eyebrow suggestively and he knows what I'm thinking.

"Do it" I hear him say through gritted teeth and the words come out sounding like a gasped rush of air as his eyes fall shut and his cock twitches visibly and for a brief moment I think he's almost going to come from sheer anticipation alone.

I quickly fetch the tin from the small wooden ledge next to the bed, prising the lid open and dipping my hand into its contents. I know Mick will already be well lubricated, his passage a slippery combination of my own fluids from before and the conditioner we used as a makeshift lubricant, but for what I'm planning to do to him we need to take things up a notch.

I scoop out a generous amount of the thick viscous substance from the tin and liberally coat my fingers and hand with it, instructing him to draw up his knees and pressing my first two digits against his anus, feeling them easily slip inside his passage. He moans and arches his back when I begin to press gently upwards against the front wall of his rectum, massaging his prostate gland and causing sparks of electricity to flow through his body. I carefully slip my third finger into him then, listening to his breath start to come in short, sharp, staccato pants.

"Relax" I whisper to him and kiss the top of his forehead as I very slowly push a fourth digit inside him, forming my fingers into the shape of an arrow and then pausing for a moment to allow him time to assimilate being entered so fully before I slip my thumb in as well, my hand naturally forming into the shape of a fist as I press up further into his passage.

He loses control then, letting out a snarling hiss of pleasure and digging his heels into the mattress beneath him as he bears down and starts to fuck my hand in his arse. I can see a light sheen of perspiration form on his brow and I brush damp strands of hair from his forehead with the fingers of my other hand before reaching down and taking hold of his cock, stroking the length of him firmly from base to tip once again as he continues to impale himself on my fist, the movements of his hips becoming increasingly more frantic and uncontrolled.

He's snarling repeatedly now, his vocalisations of pleasure punctuated by cries of "oh fuck" and "God" and the sound of those words coming from his lips is driving me to the brink of insanity as I press my own erection against his thigh and thrust myself against him repeatedly.

I can't stand it any longer; I need him inside me right now. Still keeping my fist in his arse, I dip my other hand back into the tin of lard and spread some of the contents over the head of his cock before carefully manoeuvring myself over his body and hovering just above his erection.

"Mick" I call out to him sharply, trying to get his attention and then waiting for him to open his eyes and look at me, "Do you think you could possibly disengage your brain from your prostate for just one moment and help me out here" I raise an eyebrow and look at him pointedly, rolling my eyes in frustration when he's slow to respond, looking at me as if he's off in the distance somewhere before the veil of realisation finally falls over his face and he reaches down to grab hold of his cock and hold it steady for me as I lower myself down onto him.

I close my eyes and let out a soft moan as I feel his cock entering my arse and I sink down slowly onto his erection, taking the full length of him inside me and then leaning back slightly, rocking my hips back and forth over him as I feel him start to thrust up inside me and dear god in heaven it feels good and suddenly all I can think over and over again is "I love you, I love you, please god don't let this ever end", my thoughts becoming increasingly desperate and more frantic as he thrusts up into me harder and harder and I ride him into oblivion.

I'm pretty sure I'm saying those same words out loud now, half sobbing them delirious with pleasure but I'm not even certain if Mick can hear me, he's lost in his own world and then suddenly he's screaming my name and reaching for my hand, sinking his fangs sharply into my forearm as he explodes inside me and I feel the muscles in his arse start to clench rhythmically around my other hand and I'm falling with him, grabbing for his arm and sinking my own fangs deep into his wrist and oh Christ fuck Mick I love you.

I wait a few moments for the last pulsations of our orgasms to spend themselves and then carefully pull my hand from his passage, reversing the procedure I used before and collapsing on top of him, his cock still buried inside me.

"I love you" I bury my head in his shoulder and whisper to him again, my voice sounding strained and almost desperate, as he wraps his arms around my neck and strokes the back of my hair. I know I've only just said those words to him a few short moments ago but right now it suddenly feels very important that I say them again. There's a storm coming, I can sense it. I don't want to think about it either but I know it's there and I'm terrified we won't survive it. I don't want to admit that to him though, Katherine was right when she said I'm protective of him and I will be the one to batten down the hatches and help him through the maelstrom. I hope.

I don't want to think about this now. I push myself back up onto outstretched arms and grin down at him as he looks up at me and smiles that slightly crooked and adoring smile that I love so much.

"You need a break?" I ask him, arching an eyebrow and regarding him with a slightly challenging look.

He wordlessly nods his agreement and the grin on my face grows wider as I bend my head towards his ear and whisper to him, "You've got two minutes", laughing to myself as I hear him mutter the word "Fuck" under his breath.

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"If I'd known us getting married was going to have this sort of an effect on you, I would have proposed a lot sooner." Josef let out a sniff of laughter as he lay alongside Mick and wrapped his arms around Mick's shoulders, choosing for the moment to not bring up the real reason he had just fucked Mick repeatedly for the past two hours.

"Why didn't you?" Mick disengaged himself from Josef's embrace and rolled over onto his side, propping himself up on one shoulder as he regarded Josef with a slightly quizzical look.

"I don't know." Josef replied, trying to sound as if the answer to that question didn't really matter and offering what was supposed to be an attempt at a nonchalant shrug at the same time.

"Yeah you do, Josef." Mick arched an eyebrow and gave Josef an ever so slightly challenging smile, keeping his gaze focused on Josef's face as he waited for him to respond.

"Alright Mick, you want to know why I didn't ask you to marry me sooner." Josef finally replied, taking a reluctant breath and looking up at the ceiling as if he really didn't want to continue the conversation. "In a word, Coraline."

"So let me get this straight, Josef," Mick shook his head in disbelief and looked perfectly incredulous for a moment, "you didn't ask me to marry you sooner because of my ex wife who has been dead for fifty years?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Josef's attempt at a breezily sarcastic comeback failed miserably as the words came out sounding far too forced for the effect he was going for.

"Josef," Mick shook his in disbelief once more, "that's ridiculous, why?" Mick paused for a moment, once again regarding Josef with a slightly pointed quizzical look, "So you losing the plot with our original wedding plans and turning it into a three ring circus was Coraline's fault as well?" he asked then.

"Look, I just thought you wouldn't want to go through all that again" Josef tried to reply dismissively, waving a hand through the air in front of him in what was supposed to be a gesture of _'none of this matters now'_. "Besides," he added after a moment's hesitation, the tone of his voice less dismissive than before, "I just wanted to try and give you what you didn't have with Coraline."

"Right, so you basically going insane and driving me and everyone around you completely crazy, whilst you ran around in a complete flap over the most trivial of details about our wedding, that was your idea of giving me what I never had with Coraline." Mick arched an eyebrow and gave Josef another pointed look, offering him a slightly teasing grin at the same time.

"Yeah alright, Mick." Josef rolled his eyes and started to huff in response, trying his best to look as if he were entirely not comfortable with having this particular conversation with Mick, although truth be known part of him was grateful for the distraction away from any issues with a certain blonde female who was turning out to be more of a handful than what Coraline had ever been to either one of them.  
"And what do you mean 'didn't want me to go through all that again'." Josef heard Mick interrupting him incredulously then, quickly adding with more than a slightly scoffing edge to his voice, "Just because things didn't work out between Coraline and me doesn't mean I was never happy with her, at all, ever. Come on Josef, you know that, you were there at the time"

"Yes, thank you Mick," Josef threw an exasperated hand in the air and then offered Mick an overtly sarcastic smile "thank you for the reminder of what it was like to watch you fawning around after Coraline like some obsessed little puppy dog when I wanted you for myself."

"I'm sorry" Mick looked momentarily surprised at Josef's out burst, "I didn't mean to…" he started to add, the expression on his face suddenly very contrite, his voice trailing off as he left the sentence unfinished.

"It doesn't matter," Josef's expression softened as he brushed aside Mick's previous words with another wave of a hand and then reached his arms around Mick's neck and pulled him back down into his embrace, "it was a long time ago now." he added softly, smiling half to himself and brushing a few stray strands of hair from Mick's forehead as Mick nuzzled his head under Josef's chin and draped an arm across his chest. "Come on, we should try and get some sleep. We'll be flying home tomorrow evening."

Mick knew their previous conversation was over at that point; even so he still couldn't resist having one last tiny dig.

"Josef?" he started to say, as he quickly disengaged himself from Josef's embrace and reached over the side of the bed to collect the bags of ice to pack around them that Josef had at least had the good sense to fetch from the kitchen, in-between their fourth, or was it fifth, fuck session.

"What Mick?"

"You're an idiot sometimes" Mick finished with a teasing grin and then laid his head back down on the pillow next to Josef's and draped his arm across his chest once more.

"Mick?"

"What? Shut up?"

"Exactly." Josef laughed and shook his head as he wrapped his arms around Mick's shoulders and drew him into his embrace once again.

And that's when the honeymoon was over.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Mick" Josef prodded Mick's still sleeping prone form on the bed, "Mick, come on wake up. I need you up and dressed."

"Why, what's the time" Mick stifled a yawn and opened his eyes, blinking the sleep from them at the same time, "I thought we weren't leaving until this evening?"

"We're not, but I want to spend some private time with Father Patrick before we leave and I need you to keep an eye on Katherine and Roisin." Josef replied matter of fact and tried to offer a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, although the overly rigid posture he was holding himself in belied his level of concern.

"You think we have something to be worried about?" Mick asked and then looked slightly surprised as it finally registered with him that Josef was dressed in his vestments.

"Hopefully not," Josef replied, again trying to look as casual and unaffected as possible, "but I'm sure word would have gotten around by now, so why take the chance." He paused then and arched an eyebrow, giving Mick a slightly knowing smile as he followed up with the word "No."

"Josef, it's alright I think you managed to get _that_ out of my system last night, for a while at least" he quickly added with a cheeky grin and a raise of one eyebrow, laughing to himself at the same time as he stood up and walked around to the other side of the bed to say a proper good morning to Josef. "I still think you look hot in though" he whispered to him half teasingly, as he wrapped his arms around Josef's waist and planted a quick kiss on his lips.

"I'll buy a costume for you when we get home." Josef leaned back for a moment and regarded Mick's face with a half suggestive raise of an eyebrow and a slightly cheeky grin of his own, before he returned Mick's kiss and then disentangled himself from his embrace, instructing him with another quick kiss to "go have a shower and get dressed", feeling Mick reach down and take his hand in his for a moment, before he turned to walk away. "Wait" Josef called out after his retreating form and grabbed his hand to draw Mick back towards him. "I just wanted to say thank you." he said, as he smiled and draped his arms around Mick's neck.

"What for?"

"For putting up with me these last few months," Josef held up a hand in front of Mick's face to stop what he sensed was Mick's planned protest of 'it doesn't matter'. "I know I haven't been easy to live with, Mick." He told him then, a slightly awkward note of contrition in his voice.

"Josef, it's ok," Mick laughed and kissed him once again, "I forgive you." Mick hesitated for a moment and then grinned at him conspiratorially. "I'll let you in on a little secret" he said, as he bent his lips to Josef's ear and whispered, "I'm kind of in love with you."

"Really?" Josef replied half sarcastically with mock tones of '_gee Mick you don't say_' and then placed his own lips against Mick's ear and whispered back to him, "I kind of feel the same way," pausing for a moment before he added the word, "husband," and then laughing when he saw Mick reel back in his arms and give him a sideways pointed look of surprise. "Don't get any ideas" he half snorted then and returned the same slightly pointed look Mick was giving him, "_you're_ still not allowed to call me that."

"No, of course not Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and scoffed with mock tones of understanding, "You do have a reputation to protect after all, can't have your image ruined by anyone possibly thinking you sound like prize breeding cattle" he finished with a sarcastic smile.

"Exactly, Mick" Josef quipped back at him cheekily, "thanks for being so understanding, you just give me more and more reasons to love you everyday. Now go have a shower and get dressed" he instructed him once again, the tone of his voice softer as he gave Mick one final kiss and then gently pushed him away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So when are you leaving?" Father Patrick asked Josef as they wandered the courtyard gardens of the Church together.

"Later this evening, the plane's set to fly out at 7 pm."

Father Patrick smiled and nodded his understanding, then took a seat on one of the stone benches along the path they were walking and gestured for Josef to sit next to him.

"So have you found what you came here to look for?" he asked him then, regarding Josef with a gentle smile even as he raised an eyebrow ever so slightly in a hint of challenge.

"Well considering I didn't really know exactly what I was looking for in the first place," Josef replied matter of fact, "that's hard for me to say", he paused for a moment, searching for the right words before he added, "let's just say I've come to an understanding at least and leave it at that."

"Fair enough" Father Patrick replied with another understanding nod and then patted Josef's hand next to his affectionately, "I'm going to miss you, you know."

"Likewise." Josef replied simply.

"You and Mick" Father Patrick added with a slightly pointed smile and patted Josef's hand briefly once again.

"I've been meaning to ask you about that" Josef started to say and then laughed and shook his head when he saw the old Priest staring at him with an expression of '_my God dear boy, what on earth do you expect me to be able to tell you that you don't already know after spending fifty years with the man_'. "No nothing like that" Josef laughed again and waved a slightly dismissive hand in the air in front of him, "You just seem very accepting of my relationship with Mick, more so than what I would expect from a man of your position."

"Ah" Father Patrick smiled knowingly and then reached into the side pocket of his robes and pulled out the small photograph he carried with him, "I was wondering when you'd bring this up. My son" he said with an almost wistful tone of tenderness and regret, as he handed the picture to Josef. "The result of a misspent youth before I joined the Priesthood," he quickly explained when he saw the quizzical look on Josef's face. "My son was g…" he stopped himself before he said the word and offered Josef a slightly apologetic look before continuing on. "My son", he repeated, "was in a relationship with another man and I was far from tolerant when it came to his choice of gender in a partner. I wasn't always so understanding of these things you see."

"You said he _was_ in a relationship" Josef interrupted Father Patrick's flow of speech momentarily, "what happened?"

"He died," the old Priest replied after a moment's hesitation to gather his thoughts, the words coming out with a distinctly bitter edge borne out of the memory of regrets long past, "bashed to death on the streets I threw him out onto because I was too pigheaded and full of my own spiritual self indulgence to see their is still validity with love in any form. I swore I would never treat another human being or anyone for that matter,"he quickly added, "in such a deplorable manner again."

"Wow" was all Josef could think to say in response as Father Patrick very carefully extracted the picture of his son from Josef's fingers and placed it back into the pocket of his vestments.

"Why, Josef Kostan," Father Patrick smiled then and regarded Josef with an expression of faux surprise, "I do believe I've managed to render you speechless. Should I perhaps consider that an achievement?"

"Probably" Josef laughed in reply and then fell into an easy silence alongside the old Priest, spending a few moments next to him in quiet contemplation, before he broke the stillness between them and turned to Father Patrick to ask, "Will you take my confession, Father?"

Josef laughed once again and shook his head when he saw the more than slightly overwhelmed expression that had fallen over Father Patrick's features. "I do realise we may be here a while," he half quipped to him, then asked more seriously, "Do you mind?"

Father Patrick took a moment to process the enormity of what Josef was requesting of him and then smiled and stated with gentle simplicity, "Of course not," and gestured for Josef to go ahead.

"Bless me Father for I have sinned" Josef began slowly, before pausing for a moment and then continuing on. "It has been four hundred and twenty eight years since my last confession."

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"Are you ready to go?"

Mick looked up to see Josef walking towards him and Katherine, Father Patrick following closely behind looking decidedly pale, his body slightly stooped and rigid as if he were struggling under the weight of a burden and trying not to let it show. Beyond that Mick sensed an almost beatific air of acceptance and understanding in the old Priest. He wondered for a moment exactly what Josef and he had discussed in those final hours they had spent along together, out in the courtyard gardens of the Church. He decided whatever it was it was private; Josef would tell him in his own time if he wished to do so.

"Yeah, sure" Mick smiled and nodded casually as he stood up and walked over to Josef, placing his arms around Josef's neck and greeting him with a brief kiss. "Did you get to finish whatever it was you needed to do before?" he asked Josef then and felt a momentary twinge of jealousy when he saw the unspoken look of understanding that passed between Josef and the old Priest. There were simply some things he and Josef would never be able to fully share with one another, the experience of life as a Priest, past or present, was one of them. Despite his one hundred and thirty eight years of age, Mick suddenly felt very young and inexperienced. He pushed such thoughts to the back of his mind and smiled again when Josef replied with a simple "Yes" and leaned in to return his kiss.

"Well I suppose this is goodbye." Josef disengaged himself from Mick's arms and turned to Father Patrick, indicating the suitcases next to where Katherine was seated with a sleeping Roisin cradled in her arms.

"It certainly seems that way" Father Patrick gave a brief laugh and then walked over to where Josef stood, "You take care of yourself, Josef Kostan," he told him, smiling gently as he took one of Josef's hands in his and held it for a moment.

"You too" Josef replied simply and gave the old Priests hand a brief squeeze, "Dominus tecum" he told Father Patrick then, holding the Priests gaze with his own for a moment.

"Et cum spiritu tuo" Father Patrick replied and once again Mick felt a momentary twinge of jealousy pass through him at the sense of casual ease that seemed to flow between the old Priest and Josef.

If Josef noticed Mick's sudden irrational jealousy he didn't give any indication as he quickly said a final goodbye to Father Patrick, thanking him once again for everything he had done, and then walked back over to Mick. Speaking a gentle command of, "Come on, let's go home," he took Mick's hand in his and lead the both of them out to the Taxi that was waiting to take them to the airport, with Katherine and Roisin following closely behind.

"Our suitcases are inside." Josef instructed the driver outside, rolling his eyes and letting out a slight huff of annoyance when the driver didn't immediately jump to his command. Reaching into his pocket he quickly extracted a twenty dollar note from his wallet and waved it in front of the driver's face, giving him a pointed look and a smile that said, "today, thank you" at the same time, smiling to himself with satisfaction when he saw the driver take the money from his hand and turn to obey his instruction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ride to the airport was spent in relative silence, Mick curled in Josef's lap, head tucked into his shoulder in an almost childlike pose and Katherine couldn't help but note to herself that if she didn't know any better she could have sworn they almost looked like father and son.

Mick broke the silence once, looking up at Josef and asking in far more plaintive voice than what he had intended, "Do you think Beth is going to be ok?"

"I don't know" Josef replied, absentmindedly caressing the side of Mick's face with his fingers, "I hope so," he added and pressed his lips against the top of Mick's head, brushing a few stray strands of hair from his forehead at the same time.

They fell silent again after that, Josef continuing to brush a nonchalant hand along the side of Mick's face as he stared out the window of the Taxi and watched the streets and fields of Galway roll by, until they reached their final destination.

They arrived at the airport earlier than their scheduled departure time. Rather than boarding the plane immediately they decided to wait out the remaining time in one of the airport's small cafeteria's, giving Katherine a chance to have something to eat before their flight back to Salzburg.

It was a mistake. Each distracted by their own private concerns and musings, neither of them saw what was coming until it was too late.

Snapshots of memory. A figure in black moving far too fast to be human. The flash of a gun barrel. The soft metallic click of the trigger being drawn back. The smell of cordite lingering in the air. An infant's screams as a spray of warm crimson fluid splashes across its tiny face. Pain, so much pain radiating from such an insignificant hole.

_"Whatever happens, I don't want to die, ok?" _

Hands, strong hands lifting her carrying her into a secluded corner. Voices, Mick's voice then Josef's.

"Josef. No"

"Mick, she'll die if I don't"

Hesitation, then a quick nod and a voice, Mick's voice again, drifting up out of the enveloping blackness, tinged with reluctant acceptance.

"Ok."

A sharp pain giving way to euphoria, fangs piercing flesh, a sudden rush of emotion swept along on a tidal wave of blood. A voice, Josef's voice this time, urging her to,

"Drink."

Lips being pressed against a bloody wound, the salty liquid flowing into her mouth. Awakening.

And then it was done.

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"Mick." The tone of Josef's voice was low and urgent, as he glared at Mick pointedly and told him to "hurry up and fetch some of the blood bags out of the suitcase", gritting his teeth and hissing sharply, "Mick, don't just stand there, for fucksake," when Mick was slow to respond.

"One of the Vamps working with Brogan?" Mick asked, as he returned to Josef's side carrying two bags of A negative blood, watching with trepidation as Josef quickly squeezed the contents of first one, then the other down Katherine's throat.

"I don't know" Josef replied distractedly, "probably."

Katherine parted her lips to let out a snarl then and Josef quickly clamped his hand over her mouth and growled a low warning of, "Not here," hurriedly adding, "We've attracted too much attention already," before turning to Mick and instructing him to "fetch Roisin and our suitcases and then help me get her onto the plane" gesturing his head towards the newly turned Vampire in his arms.

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"How are you feeling?" Josef tried to keep the tone of his voice light as he placed Katherine into her seat on the plane and fastened her seatbelt, pulling the strap tight across her body. He knew of course that she could easily breakout of the restraint if she wanted to, but counted on her not yet realising exactly what new strength she now possessed. Even so he was keeping a close eye on her.

"Alive" Katherine replied after struggling for a moment to find the right words, "and thirsty" she added in a half strangled whisper, "What happened?"

"You were shot" Josef smiled at her matter of fact, still keeping his tone as casual as possible, "and you're thirsty because you need to feed more often when you're newly turned. I'll get you some blood." He smiled again, more affectionately this time, reaching over to place a reassuring hand on Katherine's arm before excusing himself and heading into the plane's small well stocked kitchen to fetch some liquid refreshment for the both of them.

"So what happens now?" Mick asked as he got up from his own seat and followed Josef into the kitchen area of the plane, his tone slightly demanding and tinged with more than a hint of concern.

"What do you mean what happens now?" Josef turned to face Mick, cocking his head to one side and regarding him with a slightly bemused expression. "What do you think happens? We go home, we show her the ropes." He shrugged and gestured to indicate that Mick ought to know this already and why was he expected to explain it to him all again.

"As simple as that is it Josef." Mick took a step back and folded his arms across his chest, offering an almost challenging smirk in reply. "And I suppose you'll be dividing your time between the two of us now and I'm expected to just be happy about that," he finished with a pointed look.

"She's my fledgling now Mick, of course I need to spend time with her" Josef had been about to say, in a more than slightly cutting tone of annoyance, but stopped short when it dawned on him that Mick was thinking back to the past and a time when Josef turning him had meant a whole new slew of feelings to deal with and the start of a relationship between them.

"Mick, no it's nothing like that." Josef moved to reassure Mick then, reaching up a hand to the side of his face and holding his gaze with his own for a moment, "She's family, she might be several generations removed family," he remarked with a slight laugh at what he perceived to be the ever present strangeness of the overall situation, "but nonetheless she is still family and it doesn't work that way on family members" he shifted his hand to stroke the back of Mick's neck, arching an eyebrow and adding with a pointed smile, "not like it does on non family members. Ok?"

"Yeah, ok." Mick finally agreed after a lengthy pause, letting out a reluctant sigh of breath and averting his eyes.

"Mick?" Josef's voice was firmer this time, as he wrapped his arms around Mick's neck and offered him another pointed smile, "Ok?"

"Yeah, ok" Mick repeated back to him hurriedly, the slightest huff of annoyance in his voice as he rolled his eyes and then gave Josef a pointed look of his own to "_please just drop it_", beginning to regret ever bringing the subject up in the first place.

Josef hesitated for a moment and then pressed his lips to Mick's ear, whispering to him "and don't think I didn't notice your little display back at the Church, before." He felt Mick tense then and pull away from him slightly. Taking a step back he held Mick at arm's length and searched his face. "Care to tell me about it?" he asked, tilting his head to one side and looking at Mick with probing concern

"It's just…" Mick's hands reached up to grip the back of Josef's head then as he pressed his forehead against his and let out a sigh of breath, all traces of annoyance washed away by Josef's obvious concern for him. "It's just…I don't know, it doesn't matter," he finished with the smallest depricating laugh and then pressed his lips against Josef's and gave him a brief, tender kiss.

They stayed like that for a few moments; heads rested together, breathing in each other's scent until Josef broke the silence and told Mick gently, "putting your energy into creating irrational negative emotions isn't going to change what's happened with Beth."

"I know," Mick's voice was barely above a whisper as he swallowed nervously and felt the back of Josef's hand brush the side of his face.

"Come on," Josef said then, pulling away from the embrace, "I can't leave Katherine unattended for too long." He paused for a brief moment and then leaned in and gave Mick another quick kiss, whispering to him "I love you, you know that," before taking Mick's hand and leading the both of them back to their respective seats.

Mick watched as Josef took his seat back next to Katherine, watching him smiling at her proudly and listening as Josef began to explain to her some of the basics of Vampire life. He noted to himself how accepting Katherine appeared regarding her sudden, and complete, irrevocable change of circumstance, not even raising the slightest hint of protest when Josef had to gently break it to her that Roisin was sleeping in another area of the plane and it would be wise for Katherine not to be near her just now.

She seemed to be taking everything completely in her stride and the more Mick watched as Josef smiled and fawned over her like a proud father and the more he listened as Katherine nodded and smiled without question at everything Josef was telling her, the more he thought about Beth and the bitterness in her voice when she had told him how she hated what he had made her.

And he felt the familiar waves of guilt washing over him.

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"Take her upstairs to our room," Josef instructed Mick, carrying their suitcases through the door and gesturing to the squirming bundle in Mick's arms. "Get her settled and then come back down. We're dining in tonight."

Mick hesitated for a moment, his hand resting on the banister of the staircase, and then turned to face Josef; head tilted slightly, one eyebrow arched in a question.

"What?" Josef shook his head and then offered Mick an open palm shrug in reply, "Katherine needs to feed properly, Mick. Fledglings can't exist on store bought blood alone." He finished off with a pointed look and watched as Mick looked away then raised his eyes skyward for a moment and let out a reluctant sigh of acceptance.

What Mick wanted at that point was just to go upstairs and spend sometime alone, with Josef. The flight home had taken longer than expected, bad weather had meant an unscheduled change in flight path, in short they had flown the scenic route home, and Mick was more than a little tired and out of sorts. Nevertheless he knew Josef was right, Katherine needed to feed properly and truthfully he could probably do with a decent feed from an open vein himself.

Mick lowered his gaze back to Josef's and smiled, more agreeably this time, hurriedly telling him to "Go ahead and make the call, I'll be down in a minute," before turning away again and starting to mount the stairs to the second level of the house where the bedroom was situated, the now sleeping infant Roisin, nestled snugly in the crook of his arm.

Josef watched after Mick's retreating form for a moment and then turned back to Katherine.

"Mick can look after her," he quickly moved to reassure Katherine when he saw the forlorn look on her face as she watched Mick carrying her baby daughter up the stairs and away from her, her lips parting slightly and one arm half raised as if she meant to call out after them. "We've spoken about this," Josef added matter of fact, placing a fatherly arm around Katherine's shoulder at the same time.

"I know it's just…" Katherine let her voice trail off as she waved a hand through the air as if the gesture would complete the sentence for her.

Josef gave Katherine's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and then leaned in to plant a quick affectionate kiss on the side of the face, eliciting a slightly embarrassed smile from her lips.

"Come on" he stated somewhat cheerfully then, as he manoeuvred her over to the lounge and sat her down before walking over to pick up the cordless phone in the corner of the room, "let's get some decent blood into you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

The freshie, Darla or was it Darlene, Josef hadn't been paying that much attention when she introduced herself at the front door, was definitely the wrong side of forty. Still she came highly recommended by the agency they had procured her from as properly experienced enough to handle a fledgling Vampire's first time.

Tottering inside on heels that were far too high for her five foot nothing frame, she sauntered over to where Josef stood and stuck out one overly manicured, bubble gum pink nailed hand and cleared her throat.

"Fifty dollars thanks darl…each" she rasped in a voice that sounded like it had spent one too many wasted nights in smoke filled rooms, "and I don't do no kinky three way shit either," she added, looking around the room with a pointed raise of an eyebrow.

"Believe me my dear," Josef replied in tones of exceedingly false politeness, as he made a slight bow and then offered a sarcastically charming smile, "we wouldn't dream of touching you in that way."

"Oh a wise guy hey" Darla rolled her eyes and scoffed at Josef, letting him know she had his measure, "I've met your sort before, many times. You didn't impress me then and you don't impress me now."

"What? You've met a lot of four hundred year and fifty eight year old Vampires in your time then have you?" Josef quipped back in reply.

"Four hundred?-"

"- and fifty eight. Yes"

Darla took a step back and regarded the Vampire standing in front of her with a quick nod and a smile to indicate that, '_yes indeed now you have managed to impress me'_, before taking the money being offered to her from Josef's outstretched hand and quickly tucking it into her left boot.

Giving Josef a quick business like nod of thanks, she took a few steps towards the lounge and sat down next to Katherine. Reclining back in the seat with an air of old world charm that belied her brash exterior, she extended her arm out towards the fledgling Vampire with an inviting smile.

The agency was right, she certainly did look experienced enough to put even the most nervous of first time fledglings at ease and even Josef had to admit a kind of grudging respect for her. Her confidence and seeming ability to project a kind of gentle reassurance, despite her rather gruff and garish outward appearance, was almost alluring in way. Josef figured, quite rightly, beneath the layers of powder and paint she had probably been considered a great beauty by mortal standards, at least at one time or another.

Mick sat at the opposite end of the couch and looked on as Josef knelt beside Katherine and quickly instructed her on the finer points of freshie feeding.

"Now remember." Mick could hear Josef telling Katherine, whilst she smiled and nodded and drank in his every word, "you want to bite hard enough to draw a good flow of blood, but not so hard as to tear chunks of flesh away and risk having your freshie bleed to death. We do actually want our willing freshies to remain 'willing freshies' and besides, calls to The Cleaners are a hassle at best."

Holding Katherine's hair out the way with one hand, Josef carefully lifted Darla's arm up towards Katherine's lips with the other. Supporting the weight of Darla's arm in midair, ready for Katherine to bite into, Josef looked on and smiled his approval when Katherine obeyed his instructions on correct feeding technique almost to the letter.

As he watched his fledgling take her first drink from a mortal's vein, Josef couldn't help but note that apart from a barely perceptible hitch in the rhythm of her breathing the moment Katherine's fangs first pierced her flesh; Darla had shown very little reaction to the bite. Knowing a freshie's reaction to the initial bite could make or break a first time experience for a newly turned Vamp; once again he had to admit a kind of grudging admiration for how well Darla seemed to be handling the whole experience.

Josef let Katherine take Darla's arm from him then, still holding her hair out the way for her and occasionally sweeping a few stray drops of blood up with one finger as he continued to smile his approval and speak soft words of encouragement in his fledgling's ear. It was almost the perfect chocolate box scene of domestic harmony, if chocolate was marketed to Vampires that is, and suddenly Mick felt more than a little left out.

Clearing his throat and waiting for Josef's gaze to meet his, Mick gave a slightly pointed look and then smiled to himself when Josef immediately scurried over to his side.

"She's doing well isn't she" Josef announced proudly as he wrapped his arms around Mick's waist and gave him a quick, affectionate kiss.

"She is", Mick smiled and nodded, stifling a laugh at the same time and then quickly tongue in cheek quipped, "you must be so proud."

"Oh I am." Josef rolled his eyes and smirked at Mick in reply, then nuzzled his forehead against the side of Mick's face for a moment and whispered. "Feed with me"

This time it was Katherine's turn to feel like the proverbial fifth wheel, as she lifted her eyes and watched them engage in an almost courtship ritual of feeding, snarling and purring softly at one another as they each fed from their respective positions on Darla's arms. They paused every now and then to lick the traces of blood from each others lips and fangs, mouths locked together and fingers stroking the back of each others neck tenderly as they fed, kissed, fed, kissed.

The more Katherine looked on, the more she began to get the distinct feeling that she was somehow interrupting something deeply personal and intimate. This time it was her turn to clear her throat pointedly, removing her own fangs from Darla's arm and waiting for a response.

Slowly managing to pull themselves away from the shared pleasure of feeding, Josef and Mick quickly exchanged pointed looks of their own as they heard Katherine announce with quiet embarrassment, that she thought she might have had enough for the evening.

The look was unmistakable, a heated exchange of glances summed up in two words, "Bedroom. Now."

Josef, despite his rather brisk manner, now acted the very image of the perfect gentleman, in complete contrast to his previous behaviour, as he pressed an extra fifty dollar note into the palm of Darla's hand and quickly ushered her out the door.

"We're um…I mean Mick and I are just going to ah…we'll be upstairs," Josef turned to Katherine and finally managed to stammer out, taking Mick by the hand and backing towards the staircase.

"It's ok, go ahead and have fun." Katherine laughed and waved a dismissive hand through the air in front of her and then smiled to herself as she watched after them. Both turning away without saying another word and somehow managing to orchestrate climbing the stairs, two by two, with legs and arms entwined and mouths already locked together.

Reaching the landing at the top of the staircase, Mick quickly tried to manoeuvre Josef down the short corridor and into their bedroom. Josef halted his attempt mid stride, muttering a hurried explanation of "Not in there, Roisin's asleep" before dragging him into the drawing room instead.

Kicking the door shut behind them, Josef pressed Mick against the left hand sidewall of the room and snarled into his mouth as he pressed his lips against Mick's and clawed deftly at buttons and zippers, quickly relieving Mick of his various layers of clothing.

They parted briefly, just enough time to allow Josef to strip out of his own clothing, before coming back together just as quickly in a heated, snarling clash of torsos and fangs.

"I love you." Josef panted into the side of Mick's neck as he smothered his throat with hot wet kisses and nipped at the sensitive skin there with his fangs.

"Ditto." Mick managed to half mumble in reply, just before Josef sank to his knees in front of him and grabbed hold of his erection, moistening his lips with saliva before wrapping them around the head of Mick's cock and taking him into his mouth.

"Fuck" Mick hissed under his breath through gritted fangs, his hands gripping the back of Josef's head, fingers tangling through his hair as he tried to guide the pace a little and Josef continued to work his lips and tongue expertly over the length of him.

When Josef used two fingers of his other hand to press firmly against Mick's perineum at the same time; however, Mick knew he had to call a halt to proceedings or risk slipping over the edge too soon.

"Josef." He tapped the side of Josef's face with his finger to try and get his attention, "Josef, stop. You'll make me…"

Mick had been about to say 'you'll make me come too quickly', but Josef was already one step ahead of him. Grinning up at him, before removing his mouth from Mick's erection and sliding back up his body, he then hurriedly shifted the both of them over to the desk against the back wall of the room.

Fumbling one handed with the small front drawer of the desk, Josef quickly retrieved what he was looking for and then pulled Mick down to the floor with him below, Mick landing sprawled on top as Josef took a moment to cover his lips and face with more wet kisses and ground his hips up against Mick's, pressing their erections together.

After a few minutes Josef pushed Mick up and away from him, muttering a half distracted command of "sit up for a moment" under his breath, before unscrewing the cap off the lubricant and quickly applying a generous amount of the slippery liquid over the head of his penis.

Holding his cock steady with one hand, Josef half sat up and reached around Mick's body with the other, pressing his hand into the small of his back and guiding him over his erection. He drew in a small gasp of breath, a slight tremor of anticipation running along the muscles of his torso, as Mick carefully lowered himself down onto his hardness.

Josef felt the initial breach of resistance and then let out a low moan of approval, feeling his full length slide into Mick's passage as Mick slowly pressed himself the rest of the way down Josef's erection.

Mick pulled Josef up into a seated position then, extending his lower legs out behind him and wrapping his arms around Josef's neck as he pressed his lips against Josef's and probed the inside of his mouth with his tongue.

In this position, vigorous thrusting wasn't really a viable option so Mick contented himself with rocking back and forth over Josef's pelvis, feeling Josef's cock inside him pressing repeatedly against his prostate as he did so. He varied the pace of his movements a little, trying to prolong his pleasure but soon found himself hovering on the brink of no return, a grimace of ecstasy on his face as he panted and snarled and Josef brushed damp sweat slicked strands of hair away from his forehead and kissed him repeatedly.

In the bedroom, Roisin stirred restlessly and then opened her tiny infant mouth and let out the start of a hiccupping cry. Josef could faintly hear Katherine downstairs, moving to respond to her daughter's demands for attention.

"I'll get it," Josef heard Katherine calling out breezily as she climbed the stairs, probably believing she was doing the right thing and being helpful considering the situation. Nevertheless, Josef was more than acutely aware of the dangers a fledgling Vampire posed to a newborn infant, even if that infant was the fledgling's own flesh and blood.

He quickly tried to disengage himself from Mick's embrace, pressing his lips fervently against Mick's mouth and muttering a repeated apology, promising Mick he would be right back.

Mick had other ideas. Digging his fingers sharply into the flesh of Josef's shoulders he held onto him and whispered desperately in his ear.

"Don't stop."

"Mick I can't let her be alone with-"

"Please Josef," Mick interrupted him with another desperate whispered plea, "I'm close, oh god fuck I'm so close."

Josef hesitated for a brief moment, quickly scanning the small area beyond the door of the drawing room with his acute Vampire hearing and noting to himself that Roisin's cries seemed to have stopped as quickly as they had started and that Katherine was now hovering just outside. The barely perceptible movement of the floorboards beneath her feet gave her away as she succumbed to the natural curiosity of a fledgling for their Sire and stood at the doorway listening to the sounds coming from the other side.

Satisfied that Roisin was no longer in any immediate danger, Josef turned his attention back to Mick. Nodding a quick "ok", he hurriedly covered the length of Mick's throat with a series of rabid kisses and then reached between their bodies to take hold of Mick's cock.

Mick began to alternate between repeated panting snarls and mewling whimpers, the movements of his hips becoming increasingly erratic as Josef stroked the length of him from base to tip.

Mick moaned then, a deeply animalistic moan more akin to a growl that sent shivers of delight along Josef's spine and made him lose sense of anything but the moment he was in. Somewhere off in the distance he was vaguely aware of a door being pushed open the smallest of cracks, of a fledgling Vampire watching their Sire and his lover fucking their way into oblivion, but he was beyond caring at that point.

Katherine stared in wide eyed surprise at the scene that greeted her through the narrow opening of the doorway. Mick was sitting astride Josef, his head thrown back, muscles straining, skin slicked with sweat. His face contorted with pleasure as his mouth hung open and he moaned with every breath. Josef's cock was clearly buried deep inside his arse and Mick was rocking his hips frantically back and forth as Josef worked his hand up and down the shaft of his erection.

Even more unnerving for her to watch was Josef's reaction to Mick's increasingly pent up desire. Josef's free hand gripped the back of Mick's head, fingers clutching fistfuls of hair as he panted and snarled against Mick's throat and said Mick's name over and over again, repeating the words 'I love you' along with it.

It came out sounding almost like a series of half choked cries and for the first time since she had made his acquaintance, Katherine felt more than a little fearful of Josef. She had seen and heard him make declarations of love to Mick before, but never like this, never with such fervor, almost to the point of near religious devotion. At that moment Katherine was suddenly and acutely aware that when it came to Mick St John at least, Josef Kostan could very well be capable of anything.

Katherine watched as Mick's body went rigid, his back arched, his breathing coming in rapid gasps as he hung suspended on a knife's edge, muttering the words 'oh god, oh fuck yes' under his breath.

She shut the door on them and turned away, just as she heard Mick's final roar of release and he sank his fangs deep into the side of Josef's neck and dug his nails into the flesh of Josef's back as his climax ripped through him and he went into near convulsions of pleasure, his fluid pumping out of him and flooding over Josef's hand.

Josef fell into his own orgasm then, as he felt Mick tighten around his cock and he sank his own fangs into the top of Mick's shoulders. Coming inside him in a series of pulses that made him shudder and moan, he clung to Mick's neck and rode out his climax.

As the last pulsations faded away, Josef was suddenly pulled back to reality by the sound of Katherine's footsteps once again making their way towards the bedroom where Roisin lay sleeping.

"Crap" he gritted his teeth and muttered to himself with barely disguised annoyance.

Mick quickly pulled himself off of Josef's cock then and rolled off to one side, briefly kissing the side of Josef's face before urging him to "go" and watching with some amusement as Josef hurriedly stumbled into his pants and threw on his shirt, then rushed out the door after his fledgling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He caught up with her just as she was lifting Roisin out of her bassinet in the corner of the room.

"What are you doing?" he smiled and arched an eyebrow questioningly, his easy manner belying a distinct note of challenge.

"I'm taking care of my daughter." Katherine set her mouth into a slightly petulant determined line and looked at Josef pointedly.

"You know I can't let you do that, Katherine." Josef's tone was gentle this time as he extended his arms out towards her and gestured for Katherine to hand the tiny infant over to him.

For a moment Katherine looked like she was going to defy Josef's request, before letting out a reluctant sigh of agreement and placing Roisin into his arms, still finding it at least somewhat necessary to offer a rather skulking protest of, "this sucks."

"I know it does," Josef tutted sympathetically in reply, "but it's only for a short time, we've been through all of this."

"Did you and Mick have fun?" she framed the question with carefully contrived innocence, feeling the need to change the topic of conversation. Just as quickly she regretted the direction she had chosen to take when Josef grinned at her knowingly and said.

"You should know you were watching us."

Katherine spluttered and felt a rising heat in her face and neck as she looked down at the ground and stammered a quick apology.

"It doesn't matter," Josef laughed and waved a hand through the air in a dismissive gesture, attempting to brush aside Katherine's embarrassment, "at that point I couldn't have cared less if we had a room full on onlookers."

"Yeah you looked, occupied."

Katherine pressed her fist to her mouth and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh, as she heard Josef quip back in response,

"Well that's one way of looking at it I suppose."

Katherine paused for a moment, considering her next words carefully.

"You really love Mick, don't you?" she said then, the words more a statement than a question and Josef rolled his eyes at her and let out an exasperated breath, before noting the depth of sincerity in her eyes.

"I _adore_ Mick." Josef's reply was simply but earnest and Katherine nodded her understanding and then decided to press a little further.

"He means a lot to you doesn't he?" she ventured carefully.

"He means everything to me." Josef regarded Katherine with a curious expression, wondering where this line of questioning had come from.

"He's lucky to have you, you know." Katherine laughed and placed an awkward hand of affection on Josef's arm.

"I suppose he could say the same about me." Josef arched an eyebrow and offered Katherine a slightly tongue in cheek grin, his expression falling serious once more as heard her reply with,

"I guess you're lucky to have each other then."

"That we are." Josef hesitated for a few moments before clearing his throat and adding with quiet sincerity, "Immortality can be a very lonely existence. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found someone like Mick that I can share eternity with."

"It must be nice to love someone that much," Katherine looked at Josef somewhat wistfully then and rolled her eyes in mock exasperation when Josef cocked his head to one side and offered another tongue in cheek response.

"It has its moments" he replied with a mischievous grin and took Katherine by the arm.

"Come on," he announced then as he carried Roisin across his shoulder and lead Katherine downstairs, "let's get this little one fed and settled again shall we."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Josef?" Mick's voice was still and small in the glowing blue light of the freezer as he nuzzled his head into the crook of Josef's shoulder and draped an arm across his chest. "Promise me nothing will ever change."

"Mick" Josef laughed and kissed the top of Mick's head, running his fingers affectionately through his hair, "I don't have a pause button on life you know."

"I know, but promise me anyway."

"Alright." Josef laughed again and pressed his lips against the top of Mick's head once more. "You'll always be an angst ridden pile of guilt, Beth will always be a thorn in our sides and I will always put up with it because I love you. Now shut up and go to sleep."


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"And you wanted me to try and get you pregnant." Josef huffed and rolled his eyes as he flopped down on the lounge and stretched his legs out, resting his feet in Mick's lap.

"I beg your pardon?" Mick raised his eyebrows and gave Josef a distinctly quizzical look, before he remembered back to a previous conversation they had had some months ago where he had asked if Josef ever wondered what it would be like for them to have children. "Oh," Mick nodded with the realisation, "so I guess you're finding out what it's like to have a child then."

"I'm exhausted" Josef let out another huff of breath and tapped his foot pointedly against Mick's leg. "Roisin kept me up half the night again, feel like I haven't had a decent sleep in weeks."

"Oh you poor darling." Mick tutted in mock sympathy as he went to work on Josef's feet, rubbing them firmly between the palms of his hand and then massaging his fingers in slow circles over Josef's ankles. "Shall I fetch you your pipe and slippers, Grandad?"

Josef rolled his eyes at Mick and huffed again, this time indignantly.

"You know Katherine was watching us the other week, don't you?" Josef asked then, trying to keep the tone of his voice as nonchalant as possible.

In actual fact it had been a little over three weeks since that night. Three weeks in which Katherine had proven to be the veritable star pupil of Vampire fledglingdom, as she went from strength to strength, learning as fast as Josef could teach her. Nevertheless Josef still didn't trust her to look after Roisin without supervision, not yet at least.

Mick quickly suppressed the rising sensation of guilt and disappointment he felt when he thought of his own disastrous attempt at turning Beth into a Vampire, turning his head towards Josef instead and responding to his question with a simple "Yes, why?"

"I want to ask you a favour, that's all"

Mick looked at Josef suspiciously, "What favour?" he asked pointedly, knowing full well that when Josef said 'that's all' it usually meant something else entirely.

"Will you let her watch us again?" Once more Josef's tone was nonchalant, but Mick could hear the words hitch slightly in his throat as he spoke them.

"You what?" Mick looked at Josef with wide eyed incredulousness and shook his head. "What's bought this on?"

"I said _watch_, Mick. Not _join_ in" Josef pointed out to him hurriedly when he saw the bewildered look that had fallen over Mick's face, "and nothing's bought anything on," he added, trying to be reassuring, "it's just a test for her, that's all."

"A test?" Mick shook his head once again and let out a disbelieving sigh of breath, rolling his eyes at the same time. He turned to Josef then, his voice dripping with sarcasm, and questioned him with, "So Katherine gets to watch us fuck and then…what? She gets a gold star in Voyeurism 101 and goes to the head of the class?"

"Something like that." Josef smiled at Mick and arched an eyebrow before sitting up and shifting over closer to him. "I can't tell you because I don't want you to accidentally give the game away, alright?" he wrapped his arms around Mick's neck and kissed the side of his face affectionately, "So, will you do it then?" he asked.

"Yeah, alright." Mick finally agreed, after a few moments' hesitation, giving Josef a sideways glance and letting out a sniff of laughter as he shook his head once more and wondered exactly what his _husband_ was up to this time.

"Good." Josef leaned in and kissed the side of Mick's face once again, before standing up and offering Mick his hand with a quick direction of, "Come upstairs with me."

"What, now?"

"Yes, now. Katherine will be back from the blood bank at any moment and I want us to be relaxed and comfortable and waiting for her."

"So she can watch us fuck." Mick got to his feet and took Josef's hand, letting out another disbelieving sigh of breath as he shook his head then looked skyward and muttered under his breath. "_I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to this_."

"Grab a bottle of blood wine," Josef instructed, ignoring the words he had heard Mick mumble to himself and pointing to the wine rack in the corner of the room before he lead Mick up the stairs and into their bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lying in bed with Mick spooned in behind him; Josef quickly turned and pressed a finger to Mick's lips, warning him not to say anything just yet as they both heard the sound of the front door opening.

"Katherine" Josef called out to her, his voice forced casual, "come upstairs, we're in our room."

Mick stifled a slightly embarrassed laugh and Josef hissed at him to be quiet, before muttering a quick apology and reaching up a hand to stroke Mick's face, kissing him gently as they both heard the sound of approaching footsteps and then a tentative knocking of hand on wood.

"Come in." Josef smiled and Mick suppressed another nervous laugh as the door opened slowly and Katherine stood in the open space looking hesitant. "It's alright, come in. Come join us." Josef smiled again, a reassuring smile meant to put his tentative fledgling at ease and patted the space next to where Mick and he lay.

"You sure I'm not disturbing anything?" Katherine moved slowly towards the bed, hesitant, cautious. She noticed the two Vampires lying on the mattress in front of her, sheets only half pulled over them, were both shirtless and she assumed naked under those sheets as well.

"Do you think we would have let you in here if you were disturbing anything?" Josef arched an eyebrow and grinned at her pointedly, then gave a small shrug and said, "I haven't seen you all day, I'd like to spend some time with my fledgling."

Katherine smiled at Josef's use of term 'my fledgling' and covered the last few steps to the edge of the bed with more surety of movement. Climbing onto the mattress, she crawled over to the space Josef had indicated and half lay down, propping herself up on one shoulder and bending one leg in front of her slightly.

"Blood wine?" Josef asked with casual politeness, quickly adding "it's wine mixed with blood," when he saw the questioning look on Katherine's face, and then gestured for Mick to pour the three of them a glass each when she nodded her acceptance.

The three of them lay there on the bed together, sipping glass after glass of the thick, slightly metallic tasting wine. Almost polishing off two whole bottles between them, feeling the relaxing warm glow of the alcohol tainted blood as it coursed through their systems and they engaged in polite small talk.

The usual idle chit chat designed to pass the time. "How was your day?", "How are you?", complaints about lines and waiting times in blood banks and rude Vampires trying to jump the queue. Then Mick heard Josef take a quick breath and hesitate briefly before he broached the subject of why they had asked Katherine to join them in the first place.

His tone matter of fact, his expression open, casual, no hint of challenge, Josef looked at Katherine and asked, "Did you enjoy watching us the other day?"

Katherine swallowed a nervous lump from her throat and quickly averted her eyes from Josef's, pretending to study a particularly fascinating spot on the wall in front of her before she swallowed again and gave a quick nod of her head.

"Yeah, I guess so." She replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"It's ok," Josef gave a small laugh and reached out to place a reassuring hand on her arm. He waited for Katherine to look at him again and then held her gaze steady with his for a moment, before asking, "Would you like to watch us again?"

His voice was deeper this time, inviting, almost seductive. Josef withdrew his hand from her arm and Katherine drew in a slight gasp of air when she realised that Mick had shifted a hand under the covers and was stroking Josef slowly, kissing his way across the top of his shoulders and along his neck as he did so.

Katherine looked to Mick then, waiting for him to look up at her, to give her some sort of clue as to what she was meant to do, unsure of where exactly this was heading. Mick's eyes met hers and he smiled, a slightly knowing smile, eyebrows arched pointedly as he looked at her and said, "Just watch, nothing else."

Josef heard Katherine let out a small puff of breath, almost a sigh of relief and then saw her give the slightest nod of her head, 'ok'. He turned to Mick and kissed him, softly, deeply, tasting the inside of his mouth with his tongue. After a few moments, he broke away from the embrace and rolled onto his back; pulling back the covers and whispering "Go on."

Katherine watched as Mick slid his way down Josef's body, leaving moist trails of saliva as his lips and tongue traced a path over Josef's chest and stomach. He paused for a moment when he reached Josef's cock, erect and straining against his stomach, stretching himself out into a more comfortable position, and then pressed his mouth against his hardness and ran his lips and tongue over the length of Josef's shaft.

He flicked his tongue lightly against the sensitive underside of the head, almost teasingly, and then encircled the base of Josef's cock with one hand and took him into his mouth.

Josef gasped and reached down to stroke Mick's head, entwining his fingers in his hair as Mick worked his lips and tongue over the length of him and Josef arched his hips involuntarily and thrust himself into Mick's mouth.

"Does he do that well?" Katherine asked, at least some of her previous nervousness banished by growing curiosity and arousal.

Josef groaned and thrust his hips upwards once more and hissed a reply of "Yes" through gritted teeth and then laughed and added almost cockily, "I did teach him everything he knows."

"So he should be a bloody expert then," Katherine arched an eyebrow and quipped cheekily, eliciting a laugh from Mick as he raised his head for a moment and remarked tongue in cheek,

"Like fledgling, like Sire."

Josef rolled his eyes and let out the slightest indignant huff of breath, before he tapped Mick on the shoulder and gestured for him to come back up. Mick quickly complied with the unspoken instruction and Katherine watched once again as he moved back up Josef's body and stretched himself out on top of him, hands gripping the sides of Josef's skull lightly as he pressed his mouth against his lips and kissed him.

They rubbed against one another slowly, hips grinding together in lazy circles, their mouths locked together as they explored the planes and angles of each others body with their hands. The rhythm was teasing, maddeningly so, and Josef broke away from the kiss and pressed his lips against Mick's ear, pleading with him in a whispered hiss of breath.

"Fuck me."

Mick quickly moved to grab the tube of lubricant from the bedside cabinet and slicked his cock in preparation, before pressing two lubricated fingers against the entrance to Josef's passage and slowly pushing his way inside.

Josef lay on his side, facing away from Mick and hooked one leg back over Mick's thigh, opening himself up to his touch. He let out a snarl of approval and bit down on his lower lip when Mick's fingers found his prostate and stroked, lightly, the barest of pressures and Josef let out another snarl and pressed himself back against Mick's hand, wanting more.

Mick placed his hand on Josef's hip, holding him steady, and continued the slow, merciless build up of arousal. His own previous hesitation and nervous snippets of laughter swept away by the heat of the moment. He figured if Katherine was going to watch they might as well put on a good show and he wanted Josef to beg for him.

"Mick, please."

The voice was strained, but not desperate enough, nowhere near desperate enough. He'd have to beg harder than that. Mick smiled to himself and drew tiny languid circles over Josef's prostate with the pads of his fingers, just enough to continue the build up of pressure until Josef bit down on his lip once more and then gritted his teeth and hissed sharply,

"For fucksake Mick, please."

That was the desperation Mick was looking for, an almost demanding plea, and he quickly withdrew his fingers and grabbed hold of his own cock. He could smell Katherine's arousal on the other side of the bed, as he pressed himself against Josef's entrance and slowly thrust his way inside his passage.

Katherine's breathing was slightly shallow, her newly undead, blood fueled heart beating a little faster in her chest. Mick got the impression from the way Katherine's hands were gripping the mattress in front of her that she was resisting the urge to touch herself, probably out of some sense of personal decency. Quite ironic when you considered the fact that she was lying on a bed with two male Vampires watching her own private sex show in full 3D high definition and surround sound, or so Mick thought to himself.

He glanced down at Josef, wondering if he had noticed the state his fledgling was in and saw Josef looking at her, studying her face intently behind his own mask of arousal. And then Mick understood. Josef wanted her aroused, this was the test. A Vampire's control is never as tenuous as when they are hungry for blood or sexually aroused. Starving a fledgling to test control is never a good idea; even Mick knew that, so that left this. Turn the fledgling on, arouse them and see if they kept their inner Vampire in check.

So far Katherine was doing splendidly and Mick cupped a hand under Josef's chin and turned his face around to meet his, mouthing the word "clever" to him and arching one eyebrow in a knowing gesture before he pressed his mouth against Josef's lips and began to move inside him slowly.

The kiss was slightly awkward, a bumping of lips and scraping of fangs and Josef broke away from the kiss and concentrated on pressing himself back against Mick's hips, trying to take as much of him in as possible.

"Does it hurt?" Josef heard Katherine ask him, her voice small and curious and he resisted the urge to make some sarcastic remark like, "_actually it hurts like buggery, but he rubs my feet for me when I'm tired so I put up with it_", and bit back a moan and shook his head in reply.

"Not if you use lubricant," he told her, hoping she would accept the simple answer, not really wanting to go into the detailed mechanics of anal sex with his fledgling just at that moment. He paused to let out a soft groan as Mick continued to thrust himself slowly in and out of his passage and then added, "We've been together for fifty years as well remember, we've both had more than enough practice by now."

"Can he make you come just from doing that? Without touching you I mean" Katherine's voice was a little bolder that time, her curiosity overriding her natural refrain from asking too many questions at such a time.

"Sometimes, yes." Josef smiled and nodded in reply, a small shiver running along the length of his spine as he felt Mick's fangs nipping lightly at the skin on the top of his shoulders. He arched an eyebrow and grinned at her cheekily then and said, "Clever isn't he," unable to resist making at least one small quip.

"Do you enjoy it?" Katherine asked then, studying the expression on Josef's face as he let his eyes fall shut and another groan of pleasure elicited from his lips.

"Of course I do," the words came out slightly breathless as Mick gradually quickened the pace of his thrusts, "I wouldn't do it if I didn't."

Josef paused for a moment, reveling in the sensation of being fucked, and then snaked one arm around behind Mick's neck and twisted his head around to meet Mick's face, a similar, slightly awkward position as before. He brushed his lips lightly across Mick's mouth and then let out a slight rushing sound of air and whispered, "I love it, I love him," pausing again for the briefest of moments before he entwined the fingers of his hand through the back of Mick's hair and whispered again, "My husband."

This time it was Mick's turn to moan, the sound being swallowed by Josef's lips and tongue as he pressed his mouth against Mick's once more and kissed him. The kiss was brief, the positioning of their heads too clumsy to warrant anything else from experience. Josef removed his arm from around Mick's neck and turned his head away from him again, grinding his arse back against Mick's hips as he hissed a single command.

"Faster."

Mick complied with the instruction and increased the pace of his strokes, shortening the length of them as he did so, withdrawing his cock only far enough to push back up into Josef's arse in quick, hard thrusts.

Josef opened his eyes again for a moment, sweeping a quick glance of Katherine's face, smiling to himself when he saw there was still no sign of the inner Vampire. He closed his eyes again and then drew in a quick sharp gasp of breath and snarled when he felt cold slippery liquid being applied to his cock and Mick's hand encircled his shaft and began to pump him earnestly from base to tip.

"Is he going to make you come?" Katherine's voice was slightly higher pitched than usual, tinged with excitement and anticipation as she watched Josef pant and moan and press himself back to meet each of Mick's thrusts and Mick continued to work his hand over his cock relentlessly.

"Oh Christ fuck yes," Josef hissed under his breath through gritted fangs, then opened his lips to draw in another sharp intake of breath and panted, "he's going to make me come, oh sweet god in heaven he's going to make me come so fucking hard."

Katherine looked on then as Josef seemingly lost all sense of control and started to fuck himself on Mick's cock as hard and fast as he could. He urged Mick on as his muscles tensed and he started panting and moaning once again. Half choked cries of pleasure erupted from his parted lips as he continued to impale himself on Mick's erection and Mick worked his hand over him faster and faster.

And then he was arching his back, body rigid, mouth hung open gasping silently for air as he hung suspended on a knife edge of pleasure. Mick reached an arm around his shoulder and pressed his wrist against his mouth and felt Josef's cock in his hand swell and harden even more, pressure building almost painfully as his body strained for release.

Josef came then, hard. Hard enough to make him cry out, screaming the word 'fuck' as the sensation tore through him. His fluid flowed over Mick's hand as he bit down sharply into the flesh of Mick's wrist and went into near convulsions of pleasure.

Mick felt Josef tighten rhythmically around his cock, the sensation enough to push him over the edge and send him spiraling into his own orgasm. Sinking his own fangs into Josef's neck and snarling with pleasure as the waves of climax washed over him.

"How was it?"

Josef opened his eyes a few moments later to see Katherine looking at him expectantly. He grinned up at her and mouthed the word 'good' and closed his eyes again for a moment, enjoying the feeling of Mick pressed up against his back, one arm draped over his shoulder and pressed tightly across his chest. He smiled contentedly when Mick pressed his lips against his ear and whispered, "I love you", and he nodded and whispered the word, "ditto", in reply.

"Oh by the way," he began, after a few more moments had passed and he'd recovered his senses sufficiently, addressing Katherine as he opened his eyes and looked at her with eyebrows cocked and the hint of a devilish grin on his face, "Roisin can sleep in your room tonight and you can look after her as much as you want from now on, unsupervised."

Katherine looked at him, surprise and bewilderment mixed with barely suppressed happiness on her face. "I don't understand? When you did decide this?" she asked in a rush of emotion, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Just now." Josef smiled at her knowingly and added, "You passed the test."

"Test, what test?"

A bewildered look passed over Katherine's face once more as she shook her head not understanding what was going on, what was this test she was supposed to have passed and then the realisation dawned on her that it didn't matter. Josef was waving his hand dismissively and telling her those same words and she was once more Roisin's mother and so it was true, it didn't matter. Not one bit.

She kissed Josef impulsively on his still slightly sweat dampened forehead and announced eagerly, "I'm going to feed Roisin and give her a bath."

Josef smiled after her as he watched her race off with all the enthusiasm of the poster perfect new mother, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice, and then he closed his eyes again and settled back deeper into Mick's embrace, falling asleep with him still inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late Friday evening, a week later, Mick was stretched out on the couch and Josef lay back contentedly in his arms, absentmindedly tracing circles over Mick's forearm, wrapped around his waist, with his fingers.

Josef smiled to himself. Mick had seemed far more relaxed than he had seen him in a while and his trust in Katherine after she passed her test had proven to be well founded. He was almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief, certain the storm he feared had blown over and proven itself be no more than a minor squall, when there came a sharp insistent knocking at the door.

He felt Mick move to answer it himself and sat up. Turning to Mick and giving him a quick kiss, he told him to, "Stay there," and then added, "I'll get it," as he stood up and made his way over to the front door to see who their late night visitor could be.

His heart sank and he swallowed audibly and closed his eyes for a moment when he saw Ryder standing there, disheveled, eyes red rimmed and face creased with worry. Taking a deep breath he opened his eyes again and reluctantly motioned for Ryder to come inside.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'll go get us some drinks." Josef muttered half to himself as he watched Ryder walk through the door, shoulders stopped and brow furrowed with concern.

From the kitchen he listened to snatches of conversation, as Ryder sat in the armchair opposite Mick and recited a litany of woe with Beth.

"The Cleaners will only tolerate carelessness so far, you know that." Josef heard Ryder telling Mick as he took a seat on the lounge next to him and placed a tray of glasses and blood scotch on the table in front of them. He watched as Mick poured himself an overly generous shot and knocked it back in one hurried gulp, hands trembling slightly, before he offered the bottle to Ryder with a quick nod and an arch of his eyebrows.

"No, thank you." Ryder smiled wanly and waved a dismissive hand through the air in front of him. "She's not even bothering to cover her tracks anymore," he let out a frustrated sigh of breath and continued on, "She's feeding openly and leaving the bodies where they fall. It's only a matter of time before she's spotted or worse, picked up by the law and then what?" He paused and shook his head, "it's like she's got a death wish or something."

Josef stole a quick glance at Mick and was almost positive he could see hairline cracks of guilt, appearing like tiny webbed patterns of pain and remorse, over the surface of his face. Mick turned to Josef then and the look on his face was unmistakable.

"_Josef do something, please._"

Josef bit his lip for a moment and raised his eyes skywards before lowering his head and pressing two fingers either side of his skull, massaging his temples with slow circular pressure. He stayed like that for a few moments, trying to rub away the dull roar in his head as he sat and considered this latest predicament and what exactly he was expected to do about it. With sudden clarity he knew precisely how he was going to handle things.

"I'm going to the freezer." He stood up and announced matter of fact to no one in particular.

"Josef!" Mick caught up with him at the bottom of the stairs, reaching out to grab him by the arm and spinning him around to face him.

"Let go of me." Josef growled and flashed Mick a quick warning look, before seeing the confused expression on Mick's face and immediately softening. "I just don't know how you expect to fix this, Mick," he told him quietly as he wrapped a hand around the back of Mick's head and drew him towards him, pressing his forehead against his. "Or more to the point," he continued, "I don't know how you expect me to fix it. I can't just wave a magic wand and make this all go away you know." He let out a small sniff of laughter and shook his head. "Why do you do this to us Mick? Beth's a big girl now, if she wants to fuck things up then maybe it's time for you to let go and let her make her own mistakes."

"Even if those mistakes may end up costing her her life?" Mick reared back and looked at Josef with utter incredulousness, shaking his head in disbelief at the words he had just heard spoken. "That's not what she needs, Josef." He added with an almost defiant note of challenge.

"And what does she need, Mick." Josef threw back his own challenge, shifting his hands down to grip the top of Mick's shoulders as he held Mick's gaze firmly with his.

"She needs to not be a Vampire." Mick sighed and Josef watched as the hairline cracks began to run into deep fissures, threatening to break him apart.

Josef relented then, wrapping his arms around Mick's neck and drawing him into his embrace. He muttered a quick apology and held Mick to him, trying to offer him the sense of security and direction he needed in that moment.

"For fucksake, here we go again." Josef thought wryly and mentally rolled his eyes as he stroked the back of Mick's neck and entwined his fingers through Mick's hair.

"I'll have a security detail set up to follow her. At least we can try and keep her one step ahead of the Cleaners until we figure out a more permanent solution" He let out a reluctant sigh of breath and looked over at Ryder, furrowing his brow and shaking his head as he gave him a pointed look of "_You poor bastard, Christ what an unholy mess._"

Ryder acknowledged the look with another wan smile and a brief downwards inclination of his head, before he stood up and brushed the creases from his suit.

"I'd best be going." He said as he made his way to the front door, the weight on his shoulders lessened slightly for having shared it.

Josef reached out to Ryder as he walked past, grabbing his hand for a moment and giving it a quick reassuring squeeze before letting go and mouthing the words "take care", offering him a sympathetic smile at the same time.

Turning his attention back to Mick, he listened to him whisper repeated thanks; his sense of relief palpable as Josef drew his arms tighter around Mick's shoulders and held the both of them together.

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"Shit" Josef stabbed at the end call button on the phone with his finger and slammed the handset down on the table in front of him.

The security detail he had set up to track Beth had been in operation for five days and five nights. They reported in with Josef on a daily basis and every report was the same, a catalogue of bodies and a cremation bill that was fast burning a hole in his pocket.

"Ah Christ Mick, you and I both know this is not going to end well." Josef thought as he pressed his fingers against his temples and attempted to massage away the buzzing in his head.

"What's wrong?"

Josef looked up to see Mick leaning in the doorway of the office, a forced smile attempting to cover a mask of pain and uncertainty.

"Nothing." He waved a dismissive hand through the air in front of him and attempted to offer Mick a reassuring smile, gesturing for him to come in at the same time.

Mick hesitated for a moment and then walked over to where Josef sat behind his office desk. "It's something to do with Beth, isn't it?" he asked, as Josef reached for him and pulled him down onto his lap.

Mick's attempt to keep the question as matter of fact as possible failed miserably. Josef could hear the crack in his voice and the audible hitch in his breathing.

"It's just the reports from the security detail; it's nothing to worry about." Josef replied, tracing circles over the small of Mick's back with his hand. "Hey, you want to go out tonight?" Josef hoped a night out on the town might just do the trick of taking Mick's mind off of Beth, at least for a few hours.

"Sure," Mick offered a noncommittal shrug, "what did you have in mind?"

"I don't know? Catch a play, go see a movie, sit in a café somewhere and watch the night go by?"

"Hey, why don't we take over from the security detail for the evening and track Beth ourselves." Mick stood up and turned to face Josef, a far too eager expression on his face.

Josef gritted his teeth and suppressed the urge to call Mick an idiot to his face. "That's not exactly the sort of night out I had in mind, Mick." He replied with a pointed smile.

"Oh come on Josef." Mick's stance was challenging, legs apart and arms folded across his chest, "I'm not stupid, I know how much it's costing you to run this security detail for Beth. What's wrong with giving them the night off and saving some money? Besides, I could try and talk to her again."

"Yeah, because that just worked out so well last time didn't it Mick." Josef held Mick's gaze, challenging him to deny the stupidity of what he had just said.

The expression on Mick's face never wavered, eager and pleading behind the folded arms and open legged defiant stance. Josef studied Mick's face for a moment and then relented. "Ok." He let out a reluctant sigh, "We'll take over from the security detail and track Beth ourselves for tonight. If that's what you really want."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was well after midnight when they arrived in Cologne. They wandered the streets for more than an hour, Josef looking on as Mick's expression went from hopeful to frantic as they looked for Beth in vain. Just as Josef was about to gently suggest they call it a night, they rounded the next corner and came face to face with an image that burnt itself indelibly into Mick's brain.

The snarling creature in front of them with its fangs embedded in the lifeless body of its victim as it drained the last of its blood, bore little resemblance to the girl Mick had once known. Before Josef could stop him, he stepped out of the shadows and called her name.

Beth removed her fangs from her victim's neck and looked up, letting the body fall to the ground at her feet at the same time. Not bothering to wipe the overflow of blood from mouth she looked at Mick and offered him a smile that sent chills down Josef's spine.

"Beth." Mick took another tentative step forward, "Beth, this isn't you."

"Of course it's me, Mick." Beth laughed, a sound that would've been almost been merry were it not for the distinct note of insane menace. "Who else would it be? I'm a Vampire now, remember. This is what Vampires do, isn't it Mick." She spat the words out like a bad taste and took a step forward.

Josef hovered in the background, his senses on full alert, watching for the moment Beth decided to launch an attack on Mick in her feral state. He said a silent prayer that the moment never came, killing Beth with his bare hands in front of Mick was not a thought he particularly relished.

"This is not what Vampires do Beth." Mick held his hand out in front of him and tried to reason with her. "We have rules."

"Rules, Mick?" Beth threw back her head and roared with laughter, "We're top of the food chain; there are no rules for us."

Josef's heart sank. He had heard those same words spoken in a thousand or more ways over the centuries. It meant only one thing. Beth was beyond help. He saw Mick reach inside his coat, his eyes fixed on the creature standing in front of them. Before Josef's mind could fully register what was happening, Mick had rushed forward and plunged a stake into Beth's chest.

"Help me get her to the car." There was a note of hysteria in Mick's voice as he looked up at Josef, eyes wide and pleading.

"And just what the fuck do you think we're going to do with her Mick?"

"What do you mean, Josef?" If Mick realised the truth of Beth's situation he certainly didn't show any sign of it. "We're taking her home with us, she needs help."

"Mick." Josef knelt down and reached out to caress Mick's cheek, brushing strands of hair away from his face. "Look at her, that's not Beth and you know it."

"I know, Josef." Mick rolled his eyes and huffed, tapping Josef's hand away from his face. "I'm not an idiot alright. I can see she's back on drugs."

"Mick for fucksake." Josef gritted his teeth and spat incredulously, "She's not on drugs, she's feral."

He hadn't meant to speak so harshly. Taking a moment to bring his frustration with Mick back under control, he moved to apologise just as two black leather clad figures stepped into his field of vision and addressed Mick.

"Your friend here is quite right, Mr St. John." The taller of the two Cleaners, who Josef recognised, said simply. "We've had Ms Turner under surveillance for quite sometime now. She's been causing more than her fair share of work for us. You must realise we cannot allow things to continue this way?"

It was a rhetorical question. Josef shot Mick a warning look, silently willing him to stay quiet. Once he was sure Mick wasn't about to do anything stupid, he stood up and looked at the Cleaner who had just spoken.

"A word please Ariadne." His smile was politely charming as he gestured for the Cleaner to walk with him for a moment.

Mick watched nervously, hardly daring to draw breath as Josef and the Cleaner moved away from where he crouched by Beth's side and proceeded to carry on a short, heated conversation in a language he didn't understand or recognise.

After what seemed an eternity to Mick, Josef returned to Mick's side and gestured for him to pick Beth up. Josef's body language was tense, his heart rate elevated and Mick obeyed his direction without question as the two Cleaners turned and disappeared back into the shadows.

"What happened back there, what did you say to her?" Mick waited until they had reached the car and carefully slipped Beth into the back seat, before rushing forth with the question.

Josef quickly hopped into the driver's seat of the Ferrari and opened the passenger side door for Mick without replying.

"Josef, what happened back there?" Mick repeated as he climbed into the passenger seat alongside Josef.

"_I just sold my soul for you Mick._" Josef thought. Out loud he said, "You should know better than to ask me that, Mick. We'll work something out," he added hurriedly and reached to give Mick's hand a reassuring squeeze, "let's just get Beth back to our place and take it from there."

With that Josef let go of Mick's hand and gunned the engine of the Ferrari, pulling the vehicle onto the road and aiming it in the direction of Salzburg. Josef's hands white knuckled the steering wheel in front of him as he pressed his foot down on the accelerator and kicked the Ferrari into top gear, the words of the Cleaner echoing in his head.

"_If she steps out of line again, either his life or hers will be forfeit. By your hand._"

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"Put her over on the couch."

Josef watched as Mick silently obeyed his instruction, carrying a staked and paralysed Beth over to the black leather sofa in the middle of the room and laying her gently down on top of it.

"You know, don't you?" Josef thought, swallowing away the lump of tension in his throat as he noted the way Mick purposefully avoided looking at Beth's face. "What the hell's going to happen to you when reality finally comes crashing in Mick?"

Drawing in a sharp breath and pushing any thoughts of Mick and impending breakdowns to the back of his mind, Josef moved over to Mick's side and quietly helped him pack the bags of ice they had purchased on the drive home around Beth's prone form.

"Don't." Josef snatched Mick's wrist in mid air as Mick went to reach for the stake in Beth's chest. "That's not a good idea." He placed a comforting hand on Mick's shoulder and added gently, "I'll call someone. Get them to give her something to make her sleep."

"Ok." Mick nodded, his voice barely above a whisper, continuing to avert his eyes from Beth's face.

Josef knelt beside Mick then, arms draped around his neck and lips pressed against his temple as he silently willed him not to fall apart.

"I'll be right back." He reassured him, brushing his fingers through Mick's hair and pressing his lips to Mick's temple once more, before going to place the call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mick, come on the sun's been up for hours. We need to get some sleep."

The Doctor had been and gone over an hour ago. One of Josef's human contacts who were privileged enough to be allowed knowledge of the Vampire community, he had quickly slipped a needle filled with blood and Nembutal into a vein in Beth's arm and rendered her unconscious. They had sat together in silence for the most part, since then, Mick with his back against the wall opposite the lounge, still unable to look directly at Beth, and Josef by his side, trying to offer what comfort he could.

"You go. I want to stay here."

It was the same response Mick had given when Josef had gently suggested they get some sleep just after the Doctor had left. Despite Josef's continued reassurances that Beth wouldn't even be aware of their presence and there was nothing more they could do for now.

"Mick, please."

Josef stood up and reached a hand down towards Mick, before he had a chance to stop him Mick's hands were clutching his arms and he was being pulled back down on top of him. The force of the sudden embrace enough to elicit a rush of air from Josef's lips, as Mick clung to his neck and smothered his face and neck with rabid snarling kisses.

"Mick –"

"- Josef please, I need to stay down here and I need you with me and right now I need to feel connected to something."

"You tell me to go in one breath and beg me to stay in another, you don't know what you need, or want for that matter, Mick." Josef thought as he held Mick at arms length and studied his face. Nevertheless he couldn't refuse him; he had spoken the same words to Mick in the storage shed several weeks prior, when he had felt as if the ground was shifting out from underneath him at a hundred miles an hour.

"Ok." Josef nodded his understanding and gripped the sides of Mick's face with his hand, drawing Mick back towards him and crushing his mouth against Mick's lips.

Josef broke away from the embrace a few moments later and helped Mick out of his various layers of clothing before pausing to strip off his own. He paused for a moment then, hesitant and uncertain in the face of Mick's palpable desperation and asked, "are you sure you want to do this now."

"Yes." The response was a forced hiss of air through gritted teeth. Mick wrapped his arms around Josef's neck and lay back on the cold wooden floor beneath them, pulling Josef down with him.

Josef bent Mick's legs back against his chest and quickly slicked his cock with saliva. Pressing himself against Mick's entrance, he began to his ease way inside, slowly, not wanting to hurt Mick with the lack of proper lubrication.

Mick had other ideas. Digging his heels into Josef's arse he let out a single desperate snarl and forced Josef into him. Clinging to Josef's back he gritted his teeth and hissed repeated commands of "harder," as Josef withdrew and then thrust back into him repeatedly, picking up the pace a little more each time.

"Mick, I'm not going to hurt you if that's what you expect." Josef stopped mid stroke a few minutes later, raising himself up on outstretched arms and looking down at Mick with concern.

Mick's response was to sink his fangs hard into the top of Josef's shoulders and tear at the flesh of Josef's back with his nails.

"Mick, Jesus Christ what the fuck are you doing?" Josef didn't really need to ask that question. He knew exactly what Mick was trying to do. "That's not going to work Mick; I told you I'm not going to hurt you."

Josef gripped Mick's wrists and pinned his arms above his head. Determined to bring the both of them off as quickly as possible, he adjusted the angle of penetration and started driving himself hard into Mick's body, hitting against his prostate with every stroke.

Moments later Josef felt Mick tense beneath him and then he was snarling his release and biting into Josef's shoulder, shaking with pleasure as the waves of climax tore through him. Josef thrust himself into Mick's body a few more times and then fell with him, growling out the rhythm of his own release as he felt the orgasm overtaking him and he sank his own fangs into Mick's neck.

"What the fuck was that?" Josef snapped at Mick, withdrawing himself from Mick's passage and rolling off of him when the last pulses of their respective orgasms had been spent.

Mick turned onto his side, facing away from Josef, and burst into tears. Josef lay alongside Mick and draped an arm across his shoulder, listening helplessly as Mick sobbed and convulsed on the floor in front of him.

"Oh Christ fuck Josef, this is bad isn't it. This is so fucking bad." The words were barely decipherable and Josef tightened his embrace, drawing Mick closer into his body.

"We'll work something out." Josef tried to reassure Mick, but the words sounded empty and hollow in the face of Mick's pain.

"_I'll work something out. I have to_." Josef added silently, certain that he had never been as close to losing Mick as he felt at that moment.

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Sometime between the break of day and the drawn out hours of before, Josef had finally managed to get Mick to the Freezer. One arm draped protectively across Mick's chest he had watched, and listened, as Mick's cries turned to occasional soft hiccups of breath and then ceased all together.

Mick may have fallen into something resembling a state of sleep then, but for Josef it was a different story. Fearful for Mick's state of mind, he had lain awake and searched desperately for a way out of the current predicament. An hour before dawn he had finally hit upon what he hoped was a solution.

"Mick." Josef turned to Mick in the soft blue glow of the freezer and gently tapped his shoulder, "Mick come on, wake up."

Mick woke with a start. He would have cracked his head on the glass top of the Freezer if it hadn't been for Josef pressing the release button in time.

"Beth, where is she, is she…" Mick looked around the room, frantic, eyes wide as he struggled to shed the last vestiges of a disturbed sleep.

"She's downstairs, asleep." Josef placed one hand in the centre of Mick's chest and steadied him, "I gave her some more Nembutal before we went to bed, you obviously don't remember."

"I remember." Mick drew his legs up and rested his forehead on his knees. "She's not aware of anything is she?" He turned to Josef a few moments later and asked.

"Not a thing." Josef stroked a reassuring hand over the top of Mick's head, wrapping tendrils of Mick's hair around his fingers as he did so.

"Good, that's good." Mick muttered half to himself as he ran a hand over his face. "What time is it?"

"It's early; a bit after sunrise." Josef climbed out of the freezer and extended his hand out to Mick. "Come on, get up." He drew in a breath and then added, "We need to talk."

"Look, if this is about what happened downstairs," Mick huffed in immediate defense, sitting bolt upright and purposefully shying away from Josef's outstretched hand, "I've already apologised for that."

Josef gritted his teeth and suppressed an urge to respond with a cutting remark of, "_Apologise, Mick? What for? Slicing my back to ribbons and tearing chunks of flesh out of my shoulder with your teeth? And here I was thinking you were just overcome with passion._"

"I know you have," he reassured Mick instead, "it's not about that."

Reluctantly, Mick accepted Josef's proffered hand and climbed out of the Freezer. Whatever Josef had to say to him, Mick wasn't sure he wanted to hear. The movements of his body were stiff, his posture closed and uncertain, signifying his continued defense as Josef lead him over to their bed and instructed him to sit down.

"Mick, look at me." Josef's tone was firm as he gripped Mick's chin with his fingers and turned his face towards his. "I have to leave shortly. I'm going to try and sort stuff out for Beth, but…"

"You've worked something out then?" Mick's attention was suddenly focused, "What? Tell me."

"It's best you don't know." Josef smiled simply and caressed the side of Mick's face with the back of his hand. "_I'm certainly not going to compound your guilt by telling you what I'm planning to do._" Josef added to himself, studying Mick's face for a few moments, his concern evident. "Anyway," he smiled once more and let his hand fall to the mattress below, "as I was saying, I am going to try and sort something out for Beth, but I can't give you any guarantees Mick."

Mick opened his mouth and drew a breath to say something else and Josef held up a hand in front of his face to stop him. "There are no guarantees Mick," he repeated, "Right now Beth is feral. You know that and you know what the final outcome has to be if the situation can't be changed."

"Oh yeah you'd love that wouldn't you Josef." Mick spat in reply and turned his face away in disgust.

"Well of course I would Mick." Josef responded with acid barbed sarcasm, "Nothing in the world would give me greater pleasure than to have Beth die and then get to watch the man I love being crushed under a weight of guilt. For fucksake what do you take me for?"

The hurt in Josef's voice was clear, even behind the sarcastic edged sting. Mick mumbled a hurried apology and looked suitably contrite for a moment.

"It's ok, don't worry about it." Josef drew in a sharp breath and made a reluctant dismissive gesture in the air with his hand. "I know things are hard for you at the moment, so maybe I'll just pretend I didn't hear what you just said." He turned to Mick and added pointedly, before standing up and announcing matter of fact that he would be leaving in a few minutes and he wanted Mick dressed and downstairs to keep an eye on Beth while he was gone.

"Josef?" Mick called out after Josef's retreating form, his voice plaintive.

"What?" Josef hesitated in the doorway for a moment and then turned back to face Mick.

"Aren't you going to kiss me goodbye?"

"I don't know Mick." Josef arched an eyebrow and grinned, "Are you planning to leave my lips attached to my face?"

Josef watched as Mick's face crumpled in a heap, the threat of fresh tears welling in his eyes.

"Mick for fucksake, you don't need to go to pieces on me." Josef suppressed a laugh and shook his head, "I was joking. Smile darling it won't crack your face." he added with a cheeky grin and then walked over to Mick and placed a tender kiss on his lips. "Come on, get dressed and come downstairs with me," Josef directed Mick then, "I'll give you a proper kiss goodbye before I leave. Ok?"

"Ok" Mick let out a reluctant sigh of breath and slowly moved to obey Josef's instruction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It's not your fault." Katherine pulled up a seat and sat down at the kitchen table opposite Mick without waiting to be invited.

"It is though Katherine; I'm the one who turned her." Mick didn't bother to look up from the half empty tumbler of Blood Scotch he had been nursing for the past hour.

"Josef's told me what happened back then" Katherine replied simply, "You were put in an untenable situation by all accounts."

"Yeah well he would say that wouldn't he." Mick let out a scoff of laughter and raised his eyes for a moment, before returning to his dark reverie of glass watching.

"It's true though isn't it?" Katherine waited for Mick to look up once more and then held his gaze with her own, "It can't have been easy for you, having to deal with the sudden development of romantic feelings for your best friend."

Mick shrugged and mumbled a noncommittal reply of "I guess not."

"And when you needed Beth to stand by you," Katherine continued on unabated, "What happened? She couldn't handle things and left you to fend for yourself."

"It's not her fault; none of this is her fault." Mick drained the remainder of the tumbler and then placed it down on the table in front of him with a resounding chink of glass on wood.

"No? Then whose fault is it, Josef's? He's the one who turned you after all, ignited all those feelings that were so hard to deal with back then."

"You. Leave him out of this. This is nothing to do with Josef." Mick's voice was razor sharp; the stab of a finger across the table in Katherine's direction making it clear that he would broker no argument on the subject.

"Of course not." Katherine looked across the table at Mick with false contrition, "Besides" she added with sarcastic breeze, waving a mockingly dismissive hand in the air between them at the same time, "you're doing just fine dragging him into this mess all by yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean." Mick sat back, eyes wary, arms folded across his chest in a defensive gesture.

"Well the way you've been treating Josef lately anyone would think the fault is his entirely and now you expect him to snap his fingers and fix everything for you on demand."

"I have not." Mick started to protest, although his words sounded small and pathetic even to him. "I haven't meant to." He added under his breath.

"Well if that's the case," Katherine stood up and walked around to the other side of the table. Reaching across she refilled the tumbler in front of Mick with the last dregs of the bottle of Blood Scotch next to his arm, "might I suggest you stop acting like an ungrateful whelp and start showing Josef the appreciation he deserves."

With that she shoved the now full glass pointedly towards Mick and then turned and strode out the room.

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"How is she?"

It was the first question out of Josef's mouth as he stepped through the open front door.

"She's fine, still asleep; I gave her some more Nembutal." Mick greeted Josef's return with a quick kiss and then wrapped his arms around Josef's waist, drawing him close.

"And how are you?" Josef asked then, reaching up to brush a stray strand of hair from Mick's forehead.

"I'm…" Mick hesitated for a moment, searching for an answer that wasn't a complete lie, "…getting there," he said finally.

"That's good." Josef nodded his approval and then leant back against Mick's arms. "Well?" He arched an eyebrow and gave Mick a questioning look. "Aren't you going to bombard me with questions about where I've been and what I've been doing?"

"I trust you."

Mick's answer was a sincere as it was simple and Josef was momentarily caught off guard. "What's bought on the sudden change in attitude?" He cocked his head to one side and regarded Mick with momentary suspicion. "Or more to the point," he added with another raise of an eyebrow and a quipping smile, "where's my Mick and what have you done with him?"

"He's right here." Mick let out a sniff of laughter and then looked at Josef sheepishly, "Let's just say a certain fledgling had words with him."

The tone of Mick's admittance had been as much embarrassed as it was reluctant. Josef decided it was best to not make too big an issue of it. He brushed aside Mick's embarrassment with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"At least you seem to be feeling better." He leaned in and pressed his lips tenderly against the side of Mick's face. "Come on," Josef announced then, disentangling himself from Mick's embrace and taking him by the hand, "I'm parched. We'll grab a bottle of Blood Wine and spend the rest of the evening watching crappy late night television."

"Actually I thought we might go out for a while?"

"Ok then." Unable to resist the urge to tease Mick ever so slightly, Josef grinned and added mock serious, "And who will we be tracking this evening my beloved?"

"Oh ha ha Josef." Mick rolled his eyes and smirked at Josef in return. "Actually I had something involving a little less legwork in mind."

"Like what?" Josef regarded Mick with a simple smile and pulled him back into his arms.

"I'm not sure?" Mick shrugged and chewed his bottom lip for a moment, "Just go out and see where we end up I guess?"

'What about Beth?"

"Katherine's already agreed to look after her for the evening." Mick suppressed a rising wave of guilt and offered Josef an indulging smile, "So, do you want to go out or not?"

"Let's see where the night takes us." Josef pressed his lips to Mick's ear and purred.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh Christ, fuck." Josef gritted his teeth and gripped fistfuls of Mick's hair in his hands as Mick worked his mouth and tongue over his cock and pressed two lubricated fingers into his arse.

The evening's festivities had started with the both of them stepping out the front door together, and ended with Mick insisting they immediately proceed to one of the best hotels in Salzburg.

The Hotel Sacher, in the heart of Salzburg, was a living testament to old world charm. Mick had demanded they spare no expense and booked the costliest deluxe room available; flashing Josef an adoring smile and insisting that he was worth the added luxury. Josef didn't have the heart to point out to Mick that it was actually his money that would be paying for the room.

Moments later Josef found himself stripped naked and staring up at the ceiling of the luxury appointed hotel room, Mick's lips wrapped expertly around his erection.

Mick had kept Josef on the brink of no return for what seemed to Josef to be an eternity since then, backing off and letting his arousal fall every time Josef arched his back in frustration and tried to thrust into his mouth.

"Mick for god sake you're killing me." Josef snarled in sudden desperation and Mick shifted back up Josef's body in one swift, inhuman motion and pressed Josef's knees back against his chest, entering him in one hard thrust.

Mick bent his head towards Josef's and pressed his lips against Josef's mouth, feeling the reverberation in his chest as he withdrew and then thrust back into Josef's arse and Josef growled his approval.

Mick placed one hand under Josef's hips then, raising them up slightly and changing the angle of penetration, starting to hit against Josef's prostate with every stroke.

Josef panted and snarled with pleasure, feeling the first stirrings of impending climax moving through him, hands clutching Mick's back and fingers digging into the muscular flesh of Mick's shoulder. Mick stepped up the pace and began driving himself into Josef's passage, his movements becoming increasingly erratic as he approached his own orgasm.

Brief seconds later they both fell headfirst into the abyss, each snarling out the rhythm of their release as they sank their fangs into each other's flesh and rode out the high of their respective orgasms.

"I am so going to get you back for keeping me hanging on the edge like that." Josef traced a finger along Mick's sweat dampened brow and then down the side of Mick's face.

"Promises, promises Josef." Mick laughed and pressed his lips against Josef's once more, still feeling the aftershocks of his orgasm humming through him.

"Another time though Mick." Josef told him gently, pausing to run tender fingers through Mick's hair as Mick withdrew himself from Josef's body and rolled off to lie alongside him. "We need to be going soon; Katherine will want to get some sleep."

"I know." Mick swallowed his reluctance and reached for Josef, drawing an arm over Josef's chest and draping his leg across Josef's thigh. "Just a little bit longer, please."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had both drifted into sleep then, wrapped up in the warmth of each other's embrace. Waking a few hours later they dressed hurriedly and then made their way back home, only to be greeted on their return by a wide eyed and frantic Katherine.

"Josef, I'm so sorry. I couldn't refuse to let them in." The words spilled out in a sudden rush of fear.

Josef moved to placate Katherine, unsure what had gotten her so upset until he stepped through the front door to be greeted by the vision of Ariadne, the Cleaner he had only half tongue in cheek joked to himself about selling his soul to, flanked by two Cleaners of slightly lesser rank, standing where Beth lay unconscious on the lounge.

In that very moment Josef felt time stand still.

**Character Death Warning: This page is dark and angsty and contains the death of an established Moonlight Character, namely Beth. Please do not read it if the content is likely to upset or offend you. **

"Josef Kostan, I assume you know why we're here?"

There it was again, that same strange archaic tongue Mick had heard Ariadne and Josef speaking the night before last.

Josef instructed Katherine to go upstairs and stay there and then turned to Ariadne.

"No, actually Ariadne I don't," he said, stepping in front of Mick and holding an arm out to shield him, flashing him a quick warning look to stay quiet at the same time, "considering Beth has lain there on that couch, unconscious, for the past forty or so hours."

Ariadne stepped forward and handed Josef a piece of paper. He laughed, a hollow, empty laugh, when he read the contents. The only thing he could think was "what a relief he didn't end up faxing those papers off to Lance" and "how disappointed Lance was going to be that he wouldn't get to see Josef make a pauper of himself to '_placate that 'idiotic bricon' of a lover of his'_."

"That was sent to the editor in chief of one of Germany's biggest newspapers still in print, last week. It has only just been bought to our attention." Ariadne pointed a finger at the paper in Josef's hand, "I don't think I need to point out how fortunate we all are that that was intercepted by one of our contacts or what might have befallen us had it been actually been printed for all to see."

The piece of paper in Josef's hand contained an article, signed by Beth and detailing every last piece of information she was privy to regarding the Vampire community at large. Beth had just signed her own death warrant.

Josef turned to Mick then, eyes filled with remorse.

"Mick, I'm sorry I can't…I don't have a choice."

"Josef, what the fuck? No." Mick rushed towards the Cleaners, a growl emanating from his lips and found himself pinned by strong arms, gripping him vice like and holding him back. "You can't let them take her."

"Mick." Josef's tone was commanding, desperate to get Mick to understand and see sense, "She's put our secrecy at risk. I don't have a choice."

"Josef, please."

One of the lesser ranked Cleaners stepped forward then, holding a sharpened wooden stake out to Josef and gesturing for him to take it. He refused, citing the fact that Beth was still heavily sedated and not likely to put up much of a struggle under the circumstances.

"It's not for her, Mr Kostan." The Cleaner replied matter of fact. "We can't risk Mr St John attempting to play the hero now can we? Besides that we can't have him trying to make a break for it if you're unable to fulfill you're part of the bargain."

The tone of her voice made the meaning of those last words perfectly clear. Josef accepted the stake and then turned Mick around to face him.

"For Christ sake will somebody please speak in English and tell me what the fuck is going on." Mick snarled in helpless frustration, arms still pinned to his sides.

"Close your eyes." Josef pressed his lips to Mick's ear and whispered to him.

"Josef, please. No." Mick bit down on his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.

"Close your eyes." Josef repeated, pressing the pads of his fingers gently against Mick's eyelids and then leaning in to place a warm wet kiss on Mick's lips, tasting blood overlaid with salty tears.

A single gasp of momentary shock and pain erupted from Mick's throat as Josef plunged the stake into his chest.

Josef carefully lowered Mick to the ground as the paralysis overtook Mick's body. He knelt over him and bent down to kiss him once more, lingering this time.

"I won't lose you." Josef spoke in earnest, "Not if I have a choice in the matter."

Josef stood up then and watched in mute terrified silence as Ariadne picked the unconscious Beth up off the lounge and gestured for him to follow her into the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't need to remind you of the terms of our previous agreement, do I? Josef Kostan." Ariadne warned as Josef aimed the nozzle of the flamethrower at Beth and then hesitated, fingers trembling, unable to take the final step.

"You would sacrifice his life for this ungrateful excuse for a Vampire?"

"No."

Josef squeezed the trigger and aimed the stream of fire full blast at the figure of Beth lying on the concrete floor of the Warehouse in front of him.

The scent of burnt flesh permeated the air around him, hot dust flying into his mouth and leaving a soft residue of powder in his hair as he reduced Beth to a pile of bones and ash. When it was done Ariadne gave a curt nod of approval and then retrieved a small cell phone from the pocket of her jacket, making a quick call to the other Cleaners still keeping vigil at Josef's house, informing them that they could now stand down.

The task was complete.

Outside Josef staggered pass a busker on the street corner, oblivious to his guitar and voice out of tune as he strummed and sang "Ring of Fire" with apparent gusto.

_What kind of rat bastard psychotic would play that song right now at this moment?_

Josef flew into a blind rage and tore the man apart with his bare hands, crushing his guitar into tiny wooden splinters, and then fell to his knees and vomited black blood and bile into the ruined shreds of the man's corpse on the ground beneath him.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"For Christ sake, you could have removed this." Josef shot daggers at the Cleaners as he bent down to pull the stake out of Mick's chest.

Mick's body jerked upright, as if pulled by an invisible string, the paralysis from the stake leaving him. He looked at Josef, smears of blood on his chin and down the front of his shirt, a fine layer of grey powdery ash sprinkled through his hair and across his shoulders.

"What happened? Beth…is she?"

Mick didn't really need to ask Josef that question. The smell of burnt flesh wafted from Josef's clothes and body, assaulting Mick's nostrils with the scent of death.

"Yeah, she's…" Josef left the final word unspoken; the expression on his face told the story.

"So you just stood there and watched her burn?" Mick's voice was incredulous as his mind struggled to process the enormity of what he had seen reflected in Josef's eyes.

"Of course he watched," Ariadne stepped into the room then, beckoning to the other two Cleaners that it was time for them to leave, "it's a bit hard to aim a flame thrower with your eyes closed."

"You?" Mick stared at Josef wide eyed, physically recoiling as his mind reeled at the revelation.

"Get out." Josef spat venom at the Cleaners looking down at him, "our business is done."

Josef turned back to Mick, his expression lost and pleading, "Mick, I'm sorry."

"You were the one who did this? You burnt her, alive?" Mick's voice raised an octave, near hysteria, still trying to comprehend what he had just been told.

"Mick you don't understand." Josef sat back, throwing his hands in the air in a gesture of sheer frustration, "I had no choice. They would have killed you if I hadn't agreed to go through with it. That was the bargain I made with them, either your life or Beth's. Not surprisingly I chose yours."

Josef finished the last words of the sentence with a hollow laugh.

"I didn't know that." Mick sat silent for a moment, then wiped his hands over his face and looked at Josef once more, "You should have told me."

"Mick, come on you know how things work with the Cleaners."

Mick hesitated and then nodded his understanding. "Are you ok?" he asked then, looking at Josef with genuine concern.

"I will be." Josef forced a smile and tried to nod his reassurance, "Right now though I just need you to come over here and hold me."

Josef's voice was small and plaintive in the stillness of the room, the same lost and pleading expression on his face. Mick remained frozen to the spot, unmoving. "I can't." he told him, "Beth, she's…all over you."

Josef ran his fingers through his hair and watched as fine particles of ash drifted to the floor beneath him.

"I'll go take a shower." Josef mumbled the words under his breath, slowly getting to his feet and making his way upstairs to scrub the evidence of Beth's demise from his mind and body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tell me what happened." Josef felt Mick's hands reach for him under the spray of the shower, spinning him around and pressing him against the cold tiled wall, "I need to know."

"Mick…"

"…did she wake up?" Mick pressed his lips to Josef's neck and encircled his cock with his hand, "Did she scream? Did she look frightened? Did she know what was happening at all...Did you enjoy it?"

Josef turned on Mick then, his hand gripping Mick's throat as he lifted him off the ground and then hurled him across the room.

"Never ask me that again." He snarled in anger as Mick's head cracked against the wall on the opposite side of the room, leaving a smear of blood on the tiles behind him.

Not bothering to dry himself off Josef turned off the water in the shower and then walked past a stunned and shaken Mick still slumped on the ground with his back against the wall.

"I'm going to the freezer." Josef announced coldly to no one in particular.

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Mick had come to Josef after that, climbing into the freezer to lie next to him. Expression and voice contrite, he had whispered repeated apologies and reached for Josef in the cold blue of their icy receptacle.

They had wrapped themselves up in each other then, legs entwined and hands seeking desperate contact with the sharp planes and angles of each others body. Grinding against one another urgently, friction creating fire out of ice, they had both come screaming each other's names and sinking fangs into flesh.

When they were both spent, Mick had made some off the cuff quip about Josef being right, the freezer really was far too uncomfortable for this and for a moment Josef had almost breathed a sigh of relief, wanting to believe the worse was now over.

In the harsh light of the next day, Josef discovered the reprieve was to be short lived. They had just passed through the eye of the storm, its unnatural calm creating false hope before the roar of the storm hit them with full force.

"Tell me what happened, I need to know" Mick started in on Josef again, hands on hips and mouth set in a grim determined line as he stood over Josef at the kitchen table and voiced his demands.

"For fuck sake Mick, why?" Josef slammed the glass of blood in his hand down onto the kitchen table in front of him, "What the hell good is it going to do you?"

Josef shoved his chair back roughly from the table and stood up, striding out of the room with Mick following close behind, snapping at his heels like a terrier dog.

"Josef, please, you have to tell me. You owe me that much."

"I. Owe you? What the -"

"She was fine, Josef." Mick gritted his teeth and cut Josef's words off with a knife's edge. "She'd come off the drugs, she was happy with Ryder, she was making a new life for herself," Mick took a breath and pressed the pads of his fingers against his eyelids for a moment and then shook his head, "So what went wrong? Josef, I have to know.

"Mick, please just stop this is-"

"I have to know," Mick repeated, ignoring Josef's pleas, "and now I can't ask Beth myself because you've taken that chance away from me. So you tell me and you tell me right now, what happened. Did she say anything to you at all?"

"Gee Mick I don't know, I'd have to think about that for a moment. I was too busy chasing the howling bitch around with a flame thrower."

It was a low blow, designed to cut deep and Josef threw it anyway and then watched as Mick's face hardened into a bitter mask of hatred and he drew in another breath, ready to spit fire and venom.

Josef's hand shot towards Mick, his fingers digging painfully into Mick's cheeks as he gripped his face hard and then drew him in close.

"Mick, I love you, I don't want to hurt you." Josef's own face was mere inches away from Mick's, his voice a low hiss of desperation and warning, "but if you keep this up that is exactly what is going to happen."

Josef let his hand drop away from Mick's face then and slumped back against the wall behind him. Stunned and shaken at what had just transpired he slid down to the floor below and drew his knees up to his chest, drawing his arms tightly around them and placing his head on his hands.

Somewhere off in the distance he heard Mick's footsteps striding towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Josef called out after him, his head still in his hands, feeling like a lead weight on his shoulders unable to be lifted.

"Out." Mick didn't bother to face Josef as he threw open the door, almost ripping it from the hinges, and spat his reply, "If you won't give me the answers I need, then I'll just have to find someone who will."

With that Mick stormed out into the glare of daylight, slamming the door shut behind him hard enough to leave the glass in the front windows shaking in his wake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katherine tentatively made her way downstairs an hour later to find Josef still sitting in the same position that Mick had left him. Sitting down beside him she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and rested her forehead against the back of his head.

Josef reached for Katherine, fingers encircling her forearm as he sat motionless and drew what little comfort he could from her embrace.

He felt Katherine shift position a few moments later and slowly lifted his head to face her.

"Where's Roisin?" He asked wanly, eyes red rimmed and face pale and drawn with emotional exhaustion.

"Upstairs, asleep." Katherine chuckled softly and brushed her fingers through Josef's hair, "That one could sleep through a hurricane sometimes you know."

"Yeah well, tell her she can wake up now if she wants," Josef let out a scoffing laugh and shook his head, "the hurricane's left."

"I know, I heard." Katherine replied simply and then placed her hand under Josef's chin and turned his face directly to hers. "Why the hell do you let him treat you the way he does?" She held Josef's gaze firmly with her own, "He walks all over you and you prostrate yourself at his feet and then let him trample on you some more."

"Katherine, I love him." Josef replied in earnest, as if there need be no further explanation, "I have loved him for almost a hundred years."

"Josef that's not love, that's blind devotion and sheer obsession." Katherine looked at Josef with something akin to a mix of concern and pity on her face.

"It's our anniversary the day after tomorrow." Josef tried to brush away Katherine's concerns about the true nature of his feelings for Mick with the wave of a hand and a forced smile, "Paris," he quickly clarified when he saw the questioning look on her face, "fifty one years ago, it was the first time we were truly together. Maybe I'll surprise him with something nice, take him out somewhere really fancy, just the two of us. He'd like that."

Josef's words sounded desperate and pathetic to Katherine's ears and she looked at him incredulously for a moment and then swallowed back her urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he saw sense.

Forcing a smile of her own she gave a curt nod of her head and replied instead with a half muttered "Yeah, you do that, I'm sure Mick will really appreciate the effort."

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Mick wandered the streets, circling, directionless, until a single name popped into his mind like a revelation.

"Ryder."

He had to speak to Ryder; Ryder was the one who had lived with Beth in those final weeks and days after all. Ryder would have the answers he needed.

Making his way to the train station he threw a handful of notes and coins at the teller behind the window of the ticket office and collected his boarding pass for Cologne, not bothering to wait to collect his change at the same time.

Several hours later he was standing on Ryder's doorstep and hammering on his front door with a determined fist.

"I need to talk to you." He pushed past Ryder and strode down the passageway to the living room without waiting to be invited.

"Come in Mick, nice to see you too." Ryder muttered under his breath and then shut the door behind him.

Mick at least had the decency to wait until Ryder had entered the room and taken a seat on the couch before sitting down next to him and blurting out with sheer desperation, "What the hell happened? Please tell me, because I cannot make sense of anything for the life of me right now."

"You mean with Beth." Ryder lent back against the soft leather cushions of the couch and gave a curt nod of understanding. He had received word of Beth's passing from Josef a few short hours ago.

"Of course I mean with Beth." Mick spat incredulously, missing the point of Ryder's reply completely, "Who the fuck else would I mean?"

"Mick just watch yourself, alright. There's no need to-"

"She was fine Ryder, you know she was." Ryder's attempt to pull Mick into line fell on deaf ears as Mick continued unabated and punctuated his words with the sharp slap of a hand on leather.

"Well obviously she wasn't, Mick. If she was she'd still be alive, now wouldn't she?"

"I know that, I'm not a complete idiot you know." Mick rolled his eyes in frustration and then slumped back in the seat, folding his arms across his chest and glaring defensively at Ryder.

"_No, but right now you're acting like one._" Ryder thought, but held his tongue, not wanting to provoke Mick to any outbursts he had neither the desire nor the energy to deal with at that moment.

"Look, Mick." Ryder held up his hands and tried to reason with Mick then, "I honestly don't know what went wrong. I thought everything was fine as well. I sat with her on the couch of that place that Josef rented for her and she swore blind to me that she didn't have any feelings left for you whatsoever. She seemed happy to be with me, she seemed to be dealing fine with her new life as a Vampire, there were no indications from her at all of how she was truly feeling until it was too late."

"I don't believe that." Mick's defensive posturing shifted to one of challenge, "You lived with her, you were the last person she was truly close to. You have to know what went wrong and you have to tell me."

Mick's jaw was set hard, lips drawn back in a determined sneer. Ryder stared at Mick in disbelief for a moment and then threw his hands up in sheer frustration and spat back at him, "Why? Why the fuck should I know anything. I wasn't Beth's keeper. I've already told you, whatever was wrong she kept it well hidden, from both of us."

"Don't you even care? Don't you want to know what happened, why this happened?"

Mick could scarcely comprehend what Ryder was telling him, it seemed to Mick Ryder didn't even care and he turned to him then and told him as much.

"How the fuck can you sit there and try and rationalise any of this? You're acting like Beth didn't mean a damn thing to you, for fuck sake she was my friend-"

"And she was my partner." Ryder cut Mick's prepared rant off at the pass with a quick stab of his finger, "Or had you forgotten that fact? Of course I bloody well care that she's gone, how fucking dare you try and imply otherwise."

Ryder sat forward and shot furious daggers at Mick, the pain of his grief evident behind his mask of anger. Mick averted his eyes and then buried his face in his hands.

"Oh fuck. Ryder I'm sorry, I didn't…" Mick left the last words unspoken, shaking with disbelief and self loathing at the way he had just acted. "I'm losing it." He admitted, his voice, barely above a whisper, sounding choked and desperate.

"_Well gee Mick, it's not like I hadn't already noticed that or anything, but thank you for pointing out the blatantly obvious to me_."

Ryder mentally rolled his eyes and then swallowed back the cutting reply that was formed ready on his lips and reached out to Mick instead, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He wasn't at all prepared for what Mick did next.

Drawing his arms around Ryder's neck, Mick pulled Ryder into his embrace and then pressed his lips against Ryder's mouth.

"What the fuck?" Ryder shoved Mick away and leapt to his feet, "Have you gone completely fucking insane?" He demanded to know, staring at Mick in wide eyed shock and disbelief as he scrubbed the back of his hand over his mouth, trying to wipe away the taste of Mick's lips on his own.

"What?" Mick looked dumbfounded for a moment and then shrugged. "I just thought we could both use a bit of comfort right now."

"No Mick. You're not looking for comfort, if you were you'd be at home with Josef, where you belong." Ryder drew in a breath and then hammered the final point home with another pointed stab of a finger in Mick's direction, "What you're doing is self destructing."

Mick opened his mouth to voice his protest then and Ryder cut him off at the pass as he looked at Mick and growled an added reply of "and if you think I'm going to have any part in _that_ then you can quite happily go fuck yourself sunshine," before gritting his teeth together and hissing at Mick with unbridled fury, "Now get the fuck out of my house."

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"I thought I told you to get out."

Mick glared up at Ryder, defiant, unmoving. Ryder took a step forward, lips drawn back and fangs bared.

"Yeah, alright I'm going."

Mick stood up and turned to leave, eyes glazed and movements staggered. Ryder watched for a moment and then relented, fearing Mick's state of mind.

"Wait, Mick don't go yet. We'll talk some more, just don't stick your tongue down my throat again."

He tried to call out after him but Mick brushed him off with a dismissive wave over his shoulder and kept walking, down the passageway and out the front door, straight for oblivion.

Back in Salzburg Katherine looked on helplessly as Josef paced in front of the window and kept vigil by the front door.

"I don't think he's coming home tonight." She approached Josef cautiously, placing a tentative hand on his arm.

"He might."

The words sounded hollow and pathetic even to Josef's ears and he turned to Katherine and began to repeat the same words he had said to her hours earlier, knowing she thought he had lost his mind and pleading with her for her understanding regardless.

"Katherine, I…"

"I know, you love him" Katherine finished the sentence for him, "You've loved him for almost a hundred years, God knows why but you have and you do."

Josef paused for a moment, eyes averted; staring out the window, then looked at Katherine and gave a brief nod of his head.

"You're certifiably insane when it comes to that man, you know that don't you?" Katherine took a step towards Josef and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Yeah, I think you're probably right on that count." Josef managed a wan laugh and then allowed Katherine to draw him into her embrace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Gimme the blonde one, I want what she's having."

Madeline's was a notorious Freshie bar in the heart of downtown Cologne, where more than just blood flowed freely. Mick found himself there now, thrusting a palm full of crumbled notes into the hand of the proprietor, eager to sample the wares on offer and lose himself completely.

He manoeuvred the freshie into a dimly lit corner and flopped down onto the threadbare fabric cushions of one of the dilapidated couches that stood there, pulling her down to sit next to him.

Sinking his fangs into the flesh of her forearm he drew her chemical laced blood into his mouth and swallowed greedily, feeling his body jolting, skin crawling and tiny fingers of electricity running across his scalp as the drug coursed through his own veins.

A youth, no more than nineteen years old, approached Mick then. Eyes glistening, smeared with clumsily applied eye shadow, and lips wet with gloss and saliva. He knelt down in-between Mick's legs and placed his hands on Mick's thighs, looking up at him and arching his brow in a question.

Mick shrugged and then nodded his assent, placing his hand over his zipper and slowly lowering it. He reached down and grabbed handfuls of the youth's hair in his fists, guiding his head into his lap as he slumped against the back of the couch and muttered a single word under his breath.

"Josef."

"Yeah sure honey, whatever you say" The youth looked up at him and grinned, before reaching into the gap in Mick's jeans and working his cock free from his underwear, then wrapping his lips around the exposed head. "I can be whoever you want me to be."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I take it Mick hasn't come home yet?" Katherine crouched on the floor next to the armchair where Josef sat red eyed and haggard from lack of sleep, rolling a small, carefully wrapped package back and forth across agitated fingers. "What you got there?" Katherine asked gently, placing a concerned hand on Josef's knee.

"A present, for Mick, it's our anniversary today." Josef's forced smiled look more like a grimace of pain etched across his pale features.

"Oh Christ, Josef."

"Katherine…"

"Don't say it." Katherine held up her hands in front of Josef's face, "Alright, just don't. I don't want to hear it."

Josef drew in a breath and then swallowed back the flood of emotions welling up inside him. He heard the latch on the front door click then as the lock was released the sound snapping him to his feet.

"Mick, for God sake where the hell have you been I've been worried…" he let the rest of the sentence trail off as he watched Mick stagger through the doorway, all glassy eyed black pupils and clenched jaw, his hair and clothes in disarray.

"I told you before I left, Josef." Mick emphasised Josef's name with long drawn out syllables as he slumped onto the couch and placed his hand over his mouth, stifling the giggle that was threatening to erupt from his lips, "I went out."

"I can see that," Josef gritted his teeth and folded his arms across his chest, then tossed his head and threw at Mick with sarcastic politeness as he scented the air around him, "Well did you have fun then? I can smell them on you from here you know."

"What are you getting so worked up about?" Mick scoffed and rolled his eyes at Josef, "It's not like I fucked any of them. I got a few blow jobs; it took my mind of things, so what."

Mick finished with a forced shrug of his shoulders and a baiting smile aimed in Josef's direction.

"Well? And did you enjoy yourself?" Josef repeated, the same mockingly polite tone in his voice.

"Better than your devious snake tongued mouth."

Mick threw back his head and laughed and then looked up at Josef, wild eyed and grinning.

"I'm glad it meant something to you then, congratulations."

Josef turned away in disgust, preparing to walk away and go upstairs for some much needed freezer time, hoping Mick would come to his senses by the time he was awake again if he left him to ride out the last of his drug fueled high, alone.

"It meant absolutely nothing, Josef." Mick called out after him and then added with another wild eyed laugh and a flippant toss of his head, "A bit like you at the moment."

If Katherine had a camera at that moment, she would have sworn she could capture the exact moment when Josef's heart shattered, leaving jagged pieces lodged inside his chest.

Josef turned back to Mick and looked at him with heartbreaking disbelief, before a light went out in his eyes and he strolled casually over to where Mick sat.

Happy anniversary Mick," He smiled at Mick coldly and placed the small package in his hand down on the table in front of Mick with a soft tap, then turned away once more and walked straight out the door.

"So let me get this straight, Mick St John." Katherine spat his name like a bad taste on her mouth after Josef had left. "You've just been prepared to destroy a fifty one year relationship over some stupid blonde bitch that didn't have strength nor sense to know that sometimes shit just happens and you have to deal with it."

Katherine took a step forward then and began to clap, a slow sarcastic hand clap, "Well done."

"He'll be back." Mick snorted as he suppressed another laugh, "He's crazy about me, he'll probably bring me home another rosebush."

"You arrogant smug bastard." Katherine picked up her glass of blood from the corner of the table and threw it in Mick's face, splashing his face and clothes with the sticky red liquid.

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"Here get this into you." Katherine shoved a glass of fresh blood into Mick's hand the following afternoon as he struggled to drag himself through the layers of drug hazed unconsciousness that clung to his mind.

"Thanks," Mick rasped. His mouth felt dry and full of grit as he gratefully swallowed down the crimson liquid in the glass.

"How much do you remember? You were pretty out of it." Katherine sat on her haunches on the floor in front of Mick and looked at him uneasily.

"Not a lot." Mick paused and then scrubbed his hands over his face and flicked his fingers out in front of him, trying to rid himself of the last remnants of confused sleep still dulling his senses. "Bits and pieces, flashes." He paused again and then looked around the room, eyes searching and ears pricked, before asking Katherine. "Where's Josef?"

"You really don't remember do you?" Katherine looked incredulous for a moment and then stared at Mick with cold precision. "He's gone, Mick. He left."

"Gone? Gone where?" It was Mick's turn to look incredulous, the confusion on his face evident as he searched his memory for any hint of what might have happened only to come up completely blank.

Mick listened in stunned silence as Katherine recounted the events of the night before. Burying his head in his hands he bit down on his bottom lip and muttered a single word.

"Shit."

He looked at Katherine then, eyes pleading, remorse etched deep. "Did he say when he'd be back?"

Katherine stared at him with the same cold precision as before and gave a halfhearted shrug.

"He probably just needs a few days to cool off; he'll come home after that. I'll try and think of something nice for him, something special, try and make things up to him."

Mick was babbling, talking more to himself than anyone in the room with him. Katherine let out a wry laugh then and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah well," she told Mick then, dispensing with any inkling of forced politeness "if you think that's all it's going to take, Mick. Then bloody good luck to you, you're gonna need it."

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Contrary to Mick's almost desperate belief otherwise, Josef didn't come home. Not the next day or the day following nor the day after that.

"I miss Beth," Mick admitted to Katherine one evening, a week later, as they sat on the couch together and tried not to notice the yawning gap in both their lives. "I don't mean I miss _Beth_, I mean I miss Beth." Mick gestured to try and convey his meaning.

"You mean you miss the human Beth, the girl you knew before you turned her."

"Yeah, exactly." Mick nodded his head in and then slumped further into the couch, closing his eyes and pressing his fingers against his forehead. "I should never have done what I did to her. Josef didn't kill her, I did."

"She killed herself Mick." Katherine's reply was simple and to the point and Mick looked at her for a moment, his brow furrowed. Before he had a chance to speak Katherine continued on. "I mean come on; Beth wasn't that stupid or naïve. She knew the rules of the Vampire community even before she became one herself. She had to have known that sending that article off to the press would practically guarantee she was signing her own death warrant."

"Yeah I guess so." Mick chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, brow still furrowed and fingers pressed against his chin. "But don't you see Katherine," he turned to her and said then, punctuating his words with a cutting hand gesture in the air in front of him, "She didn't want to be a Vampire anymore, she didn't want to be a Vampire at all. I was the one who made her into the thing she hated most in herself."

Mick didn't need to go on; he let the unspoken words of the sentence hang over his head like a knife edged accusation ready to cut him in two.

"_It's my fault._"

"Yeah you turned her." Katherine rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth in frustration, "And Josef turned you, which lead you to turn Beth to try and cancel out the effects of that, so it must be Josef's fault then."

"It's not Josef's…"

Mick had been about to voice his usual protest of none of this being Josef's fault, but his words were ignored as Katherine continued on regardless.

"…Or maybe it's the Vampire who kidnapped Beth in the first place's fault? I mean if he hadn't done that then Josef wouldn't have needed to turn you at all and you wouldn't have been lead to do what you did to Beth. Or maybe it's the Vampire who sired the Vampire who kidnapped Beth's fault, after all if he hadn't existed at all then he wouldn't have kidnapped Beth, you wouldn't have needed to be turned again by Josef and you wouldn't have then turned Beth under the influence of that."

Katherine held Mick's gaze with her own, unmoving and then drove the final point home, "Or maybe we should just go back and try to find the source of all Vampirism and aim a flame thrower at that, because clearly all of this must be their fault, after all if Vampires never existed in the first place none of this would have ever happened and I wouldn't be sitting here listening to you blather on about guilt and fault, I'd be six feet under the earth in a coffin somewhere and you'd probably be a pile of dust and bones."

"That's ridiculous." Mick scoffed and let out a snort of laughter, even as he turned his head away from Katherine and stared at the wall in front of him, his mind reluctantly accepting that what she had just said did make sense.

"No more ridiculous than you blaming yourself for an unfortunate series of events that you had no real control over back then Mick." Katherine's voice was gentle that time, a reassuring hand placed lightly on Mick's arm.

"Oh Christ I miss Josef." Mick broke down then and buried his head in his hands.

"He'll be home soon." Katherine shifted her hand to the small of Mick's back, trying to offer what little comfort she could.

"You've spoken to him?" Mick lifted his head and quickly wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. "When, where is he, is he ok?"

Katherine held up her hand to halt the bombardment of questions from Mick. "He rang me last night, he doesn't want you to know where he is and he's as well as can be expected under the circumstances." She paused for a moment and then placed her hand on Mick's arm once again, "He just needs some time, ok"

"And I need him here with me."

Mick's voice was small and plaintive, almost childlike in the stillness of the room.

"How old are you again?" Katherine stared at Mick for a moment and then shook her head.

"One hundred and thirty eight, why what's that got do with anything?"

Katherine ignored the snapped tone of Mick's reply. "Josef looks after you doesn't he?"

"Josef's always looked after me. It's what he does, he takes care of me." Mick looked at Katherine, head cocked to the side and expression searching, trying to work out what she was getting at with this current line of question.

"And Coraline before that." Katherine nodded her head as if she'd just come to some great realisation.

"I don't see what Josef, or Coraline for that matter, has to do with any of this?" Mick started to say but found his reply cut off.

"You've never really had to deal with anything by yourself before, have you Mick? Not since you were a Vampire at least" it was a rhetorical question and Katherine continued on before Mick had a chance to form a response, "maybe that's half your problem."

Katherine stood up and bent down to pour a glass of blood from the bottle on the table in front of her. Handing it to Mick with a curt smile she instructed him, "Here, drink this you look like shit," and then walked away, leaving Mick to ponder his own thoughts, alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week later Mick found himself in Josef's office, frantically rifling through drawers and folders, trying to find some clue to where Josef might have gone.

Coming across a pile papers that he had found shoved, uncharacteristically messy for Josef, under a plethora of neatly filed folders in the top drawer of Josef's desk, he struggled as he read through them and tried to process the information that was revealed to him.

They were the contracts Josef had had drawn up before Beth's death. Contracts with Lance promising the entire contents of his fortune in exchange for the mortal cure, presumably to give to Beth.

"_Everything I am and everything I own, I would give up in an instant for you._"

Mick's mind and body reeled as the full weight of reality came crashing down on him and he realised just how far Josef had been prepared to go to try and save Beth's life, for his sake.

_Oh Jesus what have I done?_

He staggered back against the wall behind him and slid to the floor, stunned and shaken. Katherine found him like that an hour later; the papers still clutched his hands, breath coming in ragged gasps. She knelt down beside him and gently prised the pages from his fingers.

"Holy shit." She let out a whistle and looked at Mick in disbelief after she had quickly scanned their contents. "This is…"

"Everything, I know." Mick's voice was trembling, barely above a whisper. "Oh Jesus, Katherine," he repeated out loud. "What have I done?"

"Wow, you really did fuck up this time didn't you St John?" Katherine looked at Mick and arched her brow.

Mick gritted his teeth and began to wail then, a low keening sound like an animal in pain. Katherine stood up and backed slowly out of the room, scared to make any sudden movements until she was out of Mick's field of vision.

Hurrying down the stairs then, she picked up the phone and quickly dialed the emergency contact number Josef had given her the week before.

"Josef, you need to come home." She cut right to the chase, dispensing with any pleasantries as soon as she heard Josef's voice on the end of the line. "Right now."


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Josef." Katherine greeted him with an urgent voice and a relieved smile when she saw him walk through the door twenty four hours later. "I'm so sorry, I know you weren't ready to come home, it's just…Mick, he's…" Katherine's voice was high pitched, fingers twirling strands of hair.

Josef reached out a hand to steady her. "Where is he?"

"Upstairs, he hasn't moved since I phoned you. Josef," Katherine grabbed for Josef's arm, halting him as started to walk away, "look I know he's been a prize bastard lately, but go easy on him, alright? He's in a bad way."

"Well I'll just have to kick his ass gently for him then, won't I?" Josef patted Katherine's hand on his arm and gave a quick raise of an eyebrow before turning away and ascending the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mick." Josef crouched down on the floor in front of where Mick sat, still slumped on the floor of Josef's office, back against the wall behind Josef's desk and knees drawn up to his chest. Mick's head rested in his hands and Josef repeated his name again, a little firmer this time, and tapped the side of his face.

"Josef." Mick managed to raise his head slowly and stared at Josef for a moment, wide eyed and unblinking, "You came home."

"Yes _Louis_," Josef chuckled to himself and then gave Mick a flippant smile, "I came home."

"Why?"

_"Because I love you, you bloody idiot. You take me for granted and drive me to the point of insanity and I still love you." _Josef wanted to grab Mick by the shoulders and scream the words in his face. Instead he looked at Mick and then shrugged his shoulders. "Katherine rang me and told me to come home and here I am."

Mick seemed to be trying to process Josef's response for a moment and then the threat of fresh tears were welling in his eyes as he pleaded, "Josef, what am I going to do?"

"Well you could try getting up off the floor for a start." Josef stood up then and folded his arms across his chest, legs spread in a challenging stance. "Come on, up. Now."

Mick hesitated for a moment, looking up at Josef as if he were waiting for him to instruct him on exactly how to stand up, before getting to his feet.

"You can go downstairs and fetch me a glass of blood; I've got work to do. And then pour a double for yourself and take a goddamn shower, you look like crap."

Josef took a seat behind his desk and watched as Mick made his way, still dazed and shaken, towards the door.

Mick hesitated when he reached the doorway and then turned back to Josef, expression nervous and movements halting.

"Josef I-" Mick stopped in his tracks when he saw the unmistakable look that passed over Josef's face.

_"If you say one more word to me Mick, if you so much as breathe in my direction I will get up and I will walk out that door again." _

Mick swallowed nervously and quickly nodded his assent, before turning away and heading downstairs.

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"Where were you?" Mick broached the subject tentatively as they lay together in the freezer a few hours later.

"Paris, Lestat's." Josef's matter of fact reply ended the topic of conversation then and there.

Mick reached for Josef then, trailing his hand along Josef's chest and down his abdomen. Almost in spite of himself Josef found his body responding to Mick's touch, arching himself into Mick's fingers before the memories took over and he grabbed Mick's hand and roughly shoved it away with single command.

"Don't."

"Why not? I want to give you a proper welcome home." Mick looked at Josef helplessly, voice plaintive and eyes contrite.

"And why would you want to do that, Mick." Josef smiled at Mick with mock charm, "it's not like it's really going to mean anything, now is it?"

With that Josef rolled onto his side and shifted away from Mick, widening the gap between them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

"I went to the blood bank earlier," Mick approached Josef cautiously the following evening as Josef sat behind the desk in his office and pretended to look utterly fascinated with the computer screen in front of him. "I got us some AB negative."

"You hate AB negative." Josef replied and pointedly tapped a key on the computer's keyboard.

"I know, but you like it." Mick tried to force a smile and then walked around the desk and shifted Josef's chair around to face him before kneeling down in front of him and placing his hand on the zipper of his pants.

Josef looked down at Mick blankly for a moment and then made a grab for Mick's hand and asked simply, "What do you think you're doing?"

"What? I thought you might need a break from work."

"Yes, a blow job and a glass of blood." Josef rolled his eyes and then drew back his lips in a patronising smile, "That's all it's going to take to make everything better again."

"Josef, I just thought-"

Mick's words were cut off by the sound of chair leg scraping against wood as Josef turned the chair back towards the desk and then waved Mick off with a forced smile and a faux polite, "Mick, do you mind? I have work to do. Close the door on your way out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Mick met Katherine coming up the stairs on his way down, looking at her with the same helpless expression he had looked at Josef with the night before.

"Mick, just give him time." Katherine had been about to say, reaching out a hand towards Mick's arm. Her words were cut off the by the sudden sound of breaking glass and angry snarling coming from upstairs.

_"Christ."_

"Mick, wait, don't, leave it." Katherine called out after him, lunging for Mick's arm to try and stop him as he turned and fled back up the stairs.

"Josef, what the hell are you-"

Mick suddenly found himself spun around and shoved face down onto the desk in Josef's office amidst twisted piles of shredded paper and broken ornaments. Josef gripped the back of Mick's neck with his hand and pressed his face hard into the laminate top of the desk beneath him, as he bent his head to Mick's ear and growled.

"I was prepared to give up everything for you. Everything Mick. Everything," he repeated, his breath fanning hot against the side of Mick's face. "Just for you."

"Josef…"

"You want me to punish you for your sins Mick?" Josef ignored Mick's attempted reply and reached his freehand around Mick and hurriedly fumbled with the buttons and zipper on his pants before lowering them around Mick's knees and then repeating the same action with his own.

"Josef, don't, please." Mick's reply was a terrified whisper as Josef pressed himself in-between the cheeks of Mick's arse.

"Oh don't worry lover," Josef lowered his head and pressed his lips against Mick's ear once again, "I'm not going to, because that's exactly what you want." Josef paused for emphasis and then added with a dark hiss, "And you tell me exactly why I should give you anything right now?"

Josef squeezed his hand on the back of Mick's neck and pressed Mick's face a little harder into the top of the desk, before releasing him and stepping back to survey the destruction in the room.

"Gee, I seem to have a made a bit of a mess in here," he quipped with flippant sarcasm, before instructing Mick with matter of fact ice, "Clean it up for me."

This time it was Josef that Katherine met on the stairs, his eyes ice blue and menacing, fangs descended. She stared at him for a moment and then pressed herself back against the railing of the stairs and held her breath as Josef swept past and headed straight for the cabinet in the lounge room and poured himself a stiff shot of scotch mixed with a chaser of blood.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They both fell into an awkward routine of approach and retreat after that, with Mick doing most of the approaching and Josef thwarting his efforts with cold indifference at every turn.

The atmosphere in the house felt like an electrified knife to Katherine and for the most part she tried to stay out of the way, hoping that with enough time and space things would eventually return to some semblance of normality.

Nevertheless when Josef came home one evening and announced they should have a funeral service for Beth, before proceeding to gleefully tip a container full of cigarette ash he'd collected from one of the local bars over Mick's head, Katherine knew she had to say something.

"Bloody grow up the pair of you." She had snarled to Josef in his office upstairs and for once even Josef had to admit that he had gone too far. Not that he apologised to Mick, rather it was Katherine who received the apology for having to have witnessed such appalling behaviour on Josef's part.

Three weeks later an overly excited Mick pulled Katherine into the bedroom he shared with Josef upstairs and sat her down on their bed.

"Look what I got for Josef." He whispered and presented Katherine with a small leather bound book, a smile on his face like a child at Christmas time that has just unwrapped a particularly shiny new toy, "It's Miriam's prayer book, from when she was christened. I contacted Father Patrick and asked him if he could find anything from Josef's mortal life still in the Church archives."

"Mick," Katherine smiled and brushed a strand of hair from Mick's forehead, "it's a lovely, thoughtful gift."

If Josef agreed with Katherine he certainly didn't show it. Staring at Mick as if he had just grown a second head, he accepted the book with a noncomittal shrug and the same cold indifference he had used to respond to Mick for the past several weeks.

"Thanks." He muttered and then haphazardly dropped the book on the coffee table in the lounge and walked away.

At that point Mick sat down on the couch and admitted defeat.

"Fifty one years and I blew it." He told Katherine when she came downstairs to find him frozen in position and staring into space looking completely dejected.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Katherine's reply had the barest hint of a challenge to it and Mick responded with a half hearted shrug and a sorrowful, "What else is there to do? Go upstairs and pack."

"Well at least you're consistent, Mick St John." Katherine told Mick then, "I mean it's not like you at all to actually have to face anything that's too hard for you to deal with."

With that she stood up and headed off to find Josef.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```

"A word please Josef." Katherine strode through the door of Josef's office upstairs without waiting to be invited. As usual Josef was seated behind his desk pretending to be particularly involved in a pile of documents spread out in front of him.

"Not now Katherine." Josef muttered a distracted reply, "I don't have the time, I'm busy."

"Well make time." Katherine pulled the armchair in the corner of the room over to the desk and sat down in front of Josef, holding his gaze pointedly with her own. "You look me straight in the eye Josef Kostan and you tell me you're not still in love with Mick."

Josef drew in a breath and opened his mouth to protest otherwise and then averted his eyes for a moment before turning back to Katherine with a reluctant sigh of admittance and responding instead with. "You know I am."

"Right, just as I thought." Katherine gave a firm nod and then stabbed a pointed finger in Josef's direction. "Don't you think it's time you took at least a modicum of responsibility for your own actions in all of this?"

"What's the supposed to mean, exactly." Josef sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, eyes flashing to a defensive challenge.

"You spoil a child; don't be surprised when they start acting like a brat."

"I haven't-"

"Oh come on Josef," Katherine pre-empted Josef's indignant reply, "Yes you have. When has Mick ever really had to face up to or deal with anything truly difficult on his own? You've always taken care of everything for him. I'm surprised he can even blow his own nose or tie his own shoe laces without running to you for assistance," she finished with a brisk snort of laughter.

Josef looked at Katherine defiantly for a moment and then let out another reluctant sigh and nodded his agreement.

"So what exactly do you suggest I do about it then? Oh wise little fledgling of mine." Josef looked at Katherine across the desk with an overly charming smile.

"Simple" Katherine replied matter of fact. "Apart from that lovely demonstration you so generously gave me, I don't know what kinks the two of you have in the privacy of your own room, but outside of that might I suggest you stop playing daddy."

Katherine stood up then and walked out of the room, leaving Josef to sit and ponder his own litany of shortcomings when it came to Mick, alone.

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Josef came downstairs an hour later to find Mick waiting for him, hovering nervously by the front door, a hastily packed bag slung over his shoulder.

"I'm just going to take a few things with me for now; I'll find a hotel for tonight, come back and collect some more of my stuff tomorrow." Mick stammered out a hurried explanation, keeping his eyes leveled straight at the ground in front of him. "I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Why? Are you going somewhere?" Josef arched an eyebrow and grinned at Mick.

"No, well yes, I mean…"

"Mick." Josef took a step forward, looking at Mick sadly for a moment when he saw Mick flinch away. "Put the bag down, I don't want you to go."

"Well then what do you want Josef?" Mick threw down the bag over his shoulder and then threw his hands in the air.

"You." Josef replied simply and took another step forward, reaching out to draw his arms around Mick's neck and then pulling him into an embrace. "And to go back in time and pretend that the last couple of months never happened."

"I don't think we can." Mick replied sadly and pressed his forehead against Josef's.

"I know." Josef's voice was barely above a whisper as he caressed the side of Mick's face with the back of his hand, pausing to trace a finger of Mick's lips. "And so here we are."

"Yeah. Here we are." Mick managed a small laugh and then took a step back and held Josef at arms length. "How about we do something even better and just start this whole relationship over again."

Mick extended his hand to Josef then and smiled, "Hi I'm Mick St John."

"Hi I'm….going to…oh Christ Mick I've missed you."

"Likewise" Mick managed to half mutter before Josef pulled him back into his embrace and covered his mouth with his own. "Where are we going?' he asked in-between snarling kisses and a clashing of fangs, as Josef half manoeuvred half dragged Mick into the kitchen.

'Kitchen, table, need lubricant." Josef hurriedly blurted out and then laughed and rolled his eyes when Mick asked if they were going to fuck. "No Mick," Josef quipped as he broke the embrace for a moment and looked at Mick with one eyebrow cocked, "I thought we might play canasta, it's easier to shuffle the deck if you pre-lube the cards beforehand."

"You're a snarky bastard sometimes Josef, you know that don't you." Mick laughed as they stumbled into the kitchen together, Josef's lips covering his face and throat with hot wet kisses, their hands fumbling urgently with the various fastenings on each others material accoutrements.

"So I've been told."

Josef quickly helped Mick out of his layers of clothes and then shed his own just as rapidly. Grabbing a bottle of oil from the bench behind him he pushed Mick back onto the table in front of them and hooked Mick's legs over his shoulders.

"Oh Christ Josef, fuck." Mick gritted his teeth and snarled under his breath as Josef slicked his cock with oil and then drove the full length of himself into Mick's passage.

Their language of communication then became a series of deep growls and repeated groans of pleasure, Josef withdrawing and then thrusting back into Mick repeatedly, getting faster and harder with every stroke. Mick clung to Josef's neck and dug his fingers into the flesh of Josef's shoulders, his body tingling with electricity and cock twitching each time Josef's own cock hit against Mick's prostate.

At the rate they were both going Josef knew neither one of them was going to last long. He reached his hand down between their bodies and took hold of Mick's erection, stroking the length of him in time to his increasingly frantic thrusts into Mick's arse, pulling Mick over the edge of no return with him as they both fell into their respective orgasms and sank their fangs sharply into each others flesh.

Before Mick had a chance to catch his breath and recover from the first round, Josef was already pulling Mick down onto the kitchen floor and placing Mick on his hands and knees then positioning himself behind him. Driving himself into Mick once again, they both lost themselves in an extended hum of pleasure as Josef repeated the same hard motion of thrust and withdraw and worked his hand over the length of Mick's cock.

"Josef, wait." Mick managed a breathless laugh when they had both come for a second time; their vocalisations reduced to incoherent whimpers and snarls of delight as each bit into the other and rode out the climax that ripped through them.

"What, you need a break?" Josef's hand had already begun working Mick's softening erection back to full hardness. "You are a Vampire Mick, remember."

"I know that Josef." Mick huffed and rolled his eyes and then rapidly shifted position with Josef and pushed him onto his back. "I was just going to say, it's my turn."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So what happens now?"

Mick lay on the kitchen floor with Josef, drawn out and spent for the moment, an hour later, his hand trailing its way languidly back and forth across Josef's chest.

"I don't know." Josef shrugged and then reached over and brushed a few stray strands of hair away from Mick's face, "Work on things I guess, rebuild our relationship, together."

Mick fell silent for a moment, feeling the weight of those words and then nodded his agreement.

"Josef, what I did…I'm really…"

"No Mick, wait, before you say it there's something I need to say to you first." Josef pressed a finger to Mick's lips to silence him and then turned onto his side and raised himself up onto his shoulder. "What I did to you a few weeks ago, dumping cigarette ash on you like that..."

Mick drew in a sharp breath and flinched at the memory, then swallowed away the lump of tension that had risen in his throat and tried to brush the issue aside with a hastily muttered, "Doesn't matter, I probably deserved it."

"No Mick you didn't." Josef placed his hand under Mick's chin and turned his face towards his, "You might have deserved a lot of things, but you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry. We can still have some sort of memorial service for Beth though, if you'd like?" Josef asked then.

"I'll think about it." Mick replied after a moment's hesitation, "Eventually, yeah I guess, but right now I think there are probably more important things for us to worry about."

"Oh yeah, like what?" Josef smiled at Mick and caressed the tip of his finger over Mick's face.

"Us, you idiot." Mick laughed and rolled his eyes with mock exasperation and then looked at Josef in earnest. "I was thinking we should go away for a while, just the two of us, together."

"Sounds good," Josef pressed his lips against Mick's ear then and whispered to him. "But first of all how about we go upstairs and you let me fuck you some more."

"Great." Mick let out another brief laugh and quickly got to his feet. "I'll race you up there."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh Christ fuck." Mick's fingers dug into the mattress beneath him as Josef took him from behind the following evening. "Josef…we should…fuck!"

"Oh Christ fuck Josef we should fuck?" Josef repeated, laughing, and then bent forward and whispered into the back of Mick's neck, "What do you think we're doing."

Mick's fingers dug into the mattress again, this time in frustration. "No, I meant…we should go to…God, fuck!"

Mick's attempts at conversation reverted to a gritting of teeth and another snarling vocalisation of pleasure.

"Mick, how about you don't try and carry on a conversation when I'm doing this." Josef thrust forward, hard into Mick's passage, emphasising his point and then laughed once more and added with flippant salaciousness, "but do feel free to keep snarling out God and fuck like that."

Josef reached a hand under Mick's body then and took hold of Mick's cock, continuing to drive himself into Mick from behind as he worked his hand over the length of Mick's shaft and drew them both to their respective fangs piercing flesh conclusion.

"Ok, _now_ tell me what you were going to say before." Josef rolled over to lie next to Mick when they were both spent.

"I was going to say we should go to Paris."

"Paris?" Josef raised himself up on one shoulder and regarded Mick, a questioning look on his face. "Why Paris?"

"Well, what better way to start over than to go back to the place where it all began." Mick shrugged and turned to Josef, mirroring the position of Josef's body.

"Hmm." Josef paused for a moment, thoughtful. "I like it. Paris it is then." He laughed and placed a quick kiss on Mick's lips, eliciting a smile of adoration and another, deeper, kiss from Mick in return.

"Josef?" Mick's expression fell serious, "We need to talk…"

"Uh oh," Josef arched an eyebrow and grinned, "that sounds ominous."

"Josef." Mick let out an indignant breath of frustration and gritted his teeth, prompting a hurried apology and a contrite expression on Josef's behalf.

"I'm sorry my beloved." Josef trailed a finger down the side of Mick's face and over his shoulder, "Please, continue."

"Look I just wanted to say," Mick stumbled over the words, nervous. "What you were prepared to do for me, giving up everything like that I mean. Josef I…I mean there's no way I can…I can't ever repay you for that."

"It doesn't matter." Josef tried to brush Mick's words aside, "I happen to think you're worth it."

"That's just the thing though Josef, I'm not." Mick held up his hand to stop Josef's formed protest. "I heard what Katherine said to you upstairs last night and she's right, if we've got any chance of working things out between us you have to stop propping me up every time I stumble and fall."

"My baby boy," Josef faux sniffed and pretended to wipe away tears of joy, "he's growing up."

"Oh ha ha Josef, very funny." Mick rolled his eyes and smirked indignantly for a moment, as Josef ducked out of the way of a preempted fist.

And then Mick laughed and reached out, drawing Josef into his embrace.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"What are you thinking?" Josef reached over Mick's shoulders and pressed a fresh glass of blood into Mick's hands, one arm wrapped around Mick's waist

"Would have been nice for us to have gotten married here." Mick stood at the window of the room and looked out over the expanse of Lestat's garden estate.

"Mmm" Josef's response was distracted, one hand slipping down the front of Mick's shirt, caressing his chest, lips pressed against Mick's throat.

"Josef, we've been here for two weeks now." Mick reached up to grasp Josef's wrist and gently rebuked his advances, "and we've hardly left this room."

"So?" Josef tightened his embrace across Mick's chest, "We didn't leave this room at all for at least a month the last time we were here."

"Josef, come on." Mick tried to pull way, only to be drawn back in. "We're supposed to be here working on our relationship."

"We are." Josef whispered into Mick's neck. "This is working for me."

Josef took a moment then and hesitated. Withdrawing his embrace he took a step away from Mick and reluctantly nodded his agreement.

"Come on then, Mr Maturity," Josef laughed and reached out for Mick's hand. "We'll go and lie on the bed together and sip glasses of blood wine and talk and then we'll fuck and then we'll drink more blood wine and talk some more and then fuck…" He let the sentence trail off and then arched an eyebrow and added, "Just don't try and talk and fuck at the same time, Mick. That never seems to quite work for you."

Mick shook his head and pursed his lips, rolling his eyes in mock exasperation as Josef lead him over to the bed and stretched out alongside him, each mirroring the other as Josef absentmindedly brushed strands of hair from Mick's forehead.

"How the fuck did things get so messed up between us Josef?" Mick began, his self reproach evident. "Everything was going so perfectly and then..." Mick made an encompassing gesture with his hands and then let out a frustrated breath.

"Mick," Josef placed a finger under Mick's chin and directed Mick's gaze to his. "If that were true we wouldn't be here right now, would we?"

Josef's response was so simple, so matter of fact in its logic that Mick found he couldn't form an argument.

"Do you think things can ever go back to the way they were before?" Mick's expression was a cross mix of hope and regret.

"I should hope not Mick." Josef replied in earnest, not a trace of his usual wit to be found, "I would rather hope things could be better."

Josef clutched a hand to the back of Mick's neck and drew him into his space, pressing his forehead against his.

"Don't worry." Josef's voice was low and determined. "We'll work things out, even if it takes us an eternity to do so. I'm not going anywhere. So you're stuck with me, get used to it"

Josef placed a brief tender kiss on Mick's lips and laughed when he heard Mick's reply,

"That suits me just fine."

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"By the way," Josef's tone was forced casual as he fastened and adjusted the cufflinks of his shirt the following evening, "I've been meaning to ask, did you ever end up opening that present I got you for our anniversary?"

On the opposite side of the room Mick rifled through suitcases trying to choose an appropriate shirt to wear for the evening. It seemed that everything he owned was either too dressed down or too dressed up, not that the concept of being too dressed up was one that Josef ever really seemed to embrace. Lestat's invitation that they join him for dinner that evening had included the words, 'neat casual attire', and neat casual attire for Josef consisted of looking immaculate in one of his best tailored suits.

Mick glanced over his shoulder and felt a twinge of envy at Josef's ability to look utterly nonchalant and perfectly at ease even when he was dressed to refinement. It was just one of the many things that Mick admired about him.

Returning to his reverie of shirt hunting, Mick muttered a shamefaced reply of "No, not yet," in response to Josef's question. "Look," Mick suddenly reached for the first shirt at hand and then turned to face Josef, his expression frustrated and contrite, "I don't even remember you giving it to me. I don't remember…"

"Mick, it's ok." Josef held up a hand to halt Mick's hurriedly blurted explanations and then walked over to him. "I was just going to say that it didn't matter if you hadn't," Josef smiled and shrugged, "I've decided to get you something better."

Seeing the readied look of protest that passed over Mick's face at that moment, Josef quickly moved to distract him. Snatching the shirt that Mick was clutching out of his hand and tossing it aside, he quickly picked another one out of the tangled pile of clothes in the suitcases and handed it to Mick with a helpful smile and a quick instruction of "Wear this one, the cut and colour goes better with the pants you're wearing better."

Not waiting for a response, Josef quickly slipped Mick's arms into the sleeves of the shirt and then pulled it up onto his shoulders. Moving around to the front he moved his hands deftly along the front of the shirt, doing up the buttons and prompting an indignant hiss of a protest from Mick.

"Josef," Mick rolled his eyes and batted Josef's hands out the way before finishing the job of buttoning the shirt himself, "I am capable of dressing myself you know."

"I never said you weren't." Josef took a step back and regarded Mick bemused for a moment before he huffed and added. "I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it Mick, I've been straightening your collars and adjusting the sleeves of your shirt for you since before we even got together."

"Yeah, when you actually needed an excuse to touch me" Mick arched an eyebrow and grinned then fell serious again for a moment, "It's just the principal of it; I thought we agreed that you were going to stop being so over protective of me," Mick paused then and allowed a teasing smile to play at the corners of his lips as he added the word, "Dad."

"Well you know I was kind of under the assumption that we weren't talking about minor trivialities, Mick" Josef stepped back and folded his arms across his chest, legs spread in a stance of defiant challenge that failed to hide the look of offense that had fallen over his features.

"Josef." Mick moved to reassure Josef then, noticing the way he had purposefully ignored Mick's quip about him being 'dad' and the hurt look on his face, only to be met with a pointed smirk and the arch of an eyebrow. "Yeah ok, point taken." Mick rolled his eyes and let out a huff of breath then wrapped his arms around Josef's neck and offered a mock indulgent smile. "You can pick out my shirts and adjust my collars if it makes you happy."

"Oh it does Mick," Josef wrapped his own arms around Mick's waist and then leant back and tilted his head to one side, shooting Mick a completely insincere smile at the same time, "Nothing could possibly make me happier, it's all I've ever wanted to do with my immortal existence. As a matter of fact I've decided to give up work entirely so that I can do nothing but follow you around twenty four seven, making sure your shirt collars are perfectly aligned."

"Go on then." Mick arched an eyebrow and grinned back at Josef cheekily, "My shirt collars crooked right now, I know you're just dying to fix it."

Josef snorted a laugh and rolled his eyes, then reached up and quickly straightened Mick's collar.

"Right, there you are, perfect" Josef announced breezily as he brushed his hands down the front of Mick's shirt. "Now let's go and see who Lestat has on the menu for this evening shall we."

Neither one of them actually made to move then, the space between them growing awkward as they admitted the foolishness of what had just passed between them in a series of sheepish exchanged looks and silent positioning of bodies. Mick finally broke the moment when he averted his eyes for a brief second, muttering a hurried "We should get going, we'll be late otherwise," and then disentangled himself from Josef's arms.

"Mick, wait." Josef reached out to halt Mick's departure and pulled him back towards him. Drawing in a breath he began to speak, hesitant at first. "You asked me what happened exactly when Beth died." Josef drew another breath and held up a hand, pre-empting any protests that Mick may have decided to offer. "She was unconscious throughout, she didn't wake, she didn't say anything and she felt nothing."

It was a lie. Beth had regained consciousness briefly, the naked bones of her jaw opening in a silent scream just as the flames peeled the flesh away from her face. Josef decided it served absolutely no purpose for Mick to know that, the truth of that image would be one he carried with him to the grave, metaphorically speaking of course.

"You're lying to me." Mick reached up and gripped Josef's face in his hands for a moment, reading the truth written behind his eyes but not knowing exactly what that truth might be, "but thank you."

Mick drew Josef into his space then and pressed his forehead against his, staying like that for a moment and drawing in the feeling of proximity, before he released Josef from his embrace and took a step back.

"Come on," He instructed Josef, smiling and offering his hand for Josef to take, "We should really head down for dinner now; Lestat'll be waiting for us."

Josef hesitated for the briefest of moments, then swallowed and nodded his assent.

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"Well, I see you finally managed to pull your cock out of his arse long enough to grace us with your presence." Lestat leaned back in his chair and regarded Josef with a mocking smile.

"Oh come on now Lestat," Josef strode into the room, one arm draped loosely around Mick's waist, and flashed Lestat a completely insincere smile in return as he took a seat at the table opposite him, "You should know these things take time; I mean there's a whole process of deflation and extrication to go through."

"Touché." Lestat's expression was a picture of false grace as he raised his glass and inclined his head, then grinned at Josef and added, "So how is the Bitch Queen of New Orleans this evening?"

Mick reached for the glass of blood provided on the table in front of him and took a sip, promptly spraying the contents of his mouth over Lestat's crisp white table cloth when he heard what Lestat had just said.

"I'm sorry, the who of what?" Mick arched an eyebrow in Josef's direction and looked at him with an expectant grin. "Oh this oughta be good."

"Yes, well." Josef gritted his teeth and forced a smile, his own hands reaching for the glass of blood in front of him, raising it to his lips and taking a sip, "I really don't think we need to discuss that, do you?"

Josef shot daggers in Lestat's general direction, eliciting another faux gracious smile to tug at the corners of Lestat's mouth.

Taking another sip of blood, Lestat nodded with false acquiesce and then turned his attention to Mick. "It was a long time ago," he told him, "the end result of one particularly wayward night, involving the ingestion of a rather copious amount of illicit substances, high heels and way too much makeup."

If looks could kill Lestat would have been lying on the ground minus his head at that very moment.

"You've never done anything like that for me before." Mick placed a hand on Josef's arms and pretended to look thoroughly disappointed, attempting to break the sudden stand off that was unfolding back and forth across the table between Josef and Lestat.

"Ok Mick," Josef reached across and patted Mick's hand on his arm in a patronising gesture, "I'll make a deal with you. I'll put on a pair of heels and slap on some makeup for you, if you don a collar and leash and let me parade you naked along the Champs Elysees. We'll pretend you're my bitch."

For a moment Mick looked as if he were about to agree to Josef's suggestion. Josef shook his head and stared at Mick, looking thoroughly mortified until Mick grinned and Josef let out a relieved hiss of breath when he realised he was being had.

"Very funny Mick." Josef raised his glass and toasted Mick with mock sincerity.

The conversation turned to small talk then, relaxed discussions of respective business ventures and other innocuous topics. Several hours and a parade of freshies sampled later, Josef stood up from the table and gestured for Mick to take his hand.

"So what does the rest of the evening hold for the two of you?" Lestat asked as Mick accepted Josef's proffered hand and allowed himself to be helped to his feet.

"Don't know," Josef gave an open palmed shrug, "Go for a walk, check out the city, enjoy the sights and sounds of Paris at night."

"Sounds like fun." Lestat offered a nonchalant smile and then wished them both a very good night and then watched their retreating forms as Josef draped an arm across Mick's shoulders and lead the both of them towards the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You ok?" Josef placed a hand on Mick's arm and tracked his gaze to the building in front of them.

The had wandered through the streets of Paris, sampling the sights and sounds of the evening just as Josef has intended, before Josef found himself suddenly halted in his tracks when Mick stopped short and stood frozen to the spot, an expression of regret and horrified memory on his face.

"Fifty one years ago, I almost lost you in that place." Mick's voice was barely above a whisper, his hand pressed into his mouth as he looked up at the hotel that seemed to loom like an accusation before him.

"Mick don't, that's all in the past now." Josef's fingers gripped Mick's arm gently as he turned and began to walk away, trying to coax Mick to follow him.

"No," Mick shook Josef's grasp from his arm and stepped away, crossing his arms across his chest with a determined look, "I want to go up there. I want to see that room again."

"Mick, come on…"

"Josef please. I have to." Mick dropped his arms to his sides, his expression pleading.

Josef hesitated for a moment and then nodded his assent. Letting out a reluctant breath he took a step forward and reached for Mick's hand.

Ok, come on then. We'll go up there together." Josef told Mick then, as he took Mick by the hand and lead him towards their past.

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"What, you still expect my blood to be there?" Josef watched as Mick knelt on the floor of the hotel room and prodded the area of carpet where Josef had lain, bleeding to death fifty one years ago, with his fingers.

"What do you remember?" Mick placed his palm to the floor, feeling the sponginess of the carpet beneath his touch and then drew back his lips and inhaled, scenting the air around him. Any trace of Josef's blood was long gone, washed away by constant traffic and decades of man made chemicals.

"Well dying after three hundred and fifty odd years felt a little strange, I remember that much," Josef knelt beside Mick then, reaching out a hand to caress the nape of Mick's neck, "I also have this odd recollection of someone kneeling over me and making some rather histrionic declarations of love." Josef arched an eyebrow and grinned at Mick affectionately, his fingers stroking tendrils of hair at the base of Mick's skull.

Almost in spite of himself, Mick shook his head and laughed.

"…and all I had to do was almost cease to exist." Mick heard Josef say then.

Josef's words snapped Mick back to the cold dark reality of his own recollections of that night.

"Christ." Mick scrubbed his hands over his face and shook his head, "I have been such an idiot. I came so damn close to losing you for good fifty one years ago and then fifty one years later I turn around and do my best to lose you all over again."

Mick spat the words, his anger and remorse evident. Josef placed his hands on either side of Mick's shoulders and turned him around to face him.

"You didn't lose me though Mick," Josef stated simply "but you did lose Beth."

"Yeah, I lost Beth fifty one years ago Josef."

The guilt in Mick's voice was evident.

"You know the angst is endearing sometimes Mick," Josef smiled traced the back of his hand down the side of Mick's face, "but I think it's time to let it go."

Before Mick had a chance to launch any sort of protest, Josef stood up and pulled Mick to his feet with him.

"What are you doing?" Mick looked over his shoulder and raised a questioning eyebrow as Josef spun him around and began to manoeuvre him towards the wall in front of them.

"Proving to you that I'm still here."

Josef locked Mick's wrists one over the other and then placed Mick's hands against the wall. He pressed himself against Mick then, making sure each part of his own body made contact.

Josef stayed like that for a moment, letting Mick feel the weight of his solidness before he broke the contact briefly and began to work on undoing the various fastenings on Mick's jeans.

Mick drew in a rushed breath when he felt Josef's hands grip the sides of his jeans and lower them around his knees along with his underwear. Instructing him to keep his hands on the wall, Josef snaked one hand around Mick's waist and began to stroke his hardness whilst he fumbled with the fastenings on his own pants with the other.

Releasing his own erection into his hand, Josef quickly slicked himself with saliva and then pressed the head of his cock against Mick's body.

"You ok?" Josef asked, hearing Mick's wince of pain as he pushed past the initial resistance and began to enter him.

"Yeah." Mick gritted his teeth and nodded. "Just give me a moment."

Josef obeyed Mick's direction and held himself still, waiting until he felt Mick's body relax, accepting him. He slowly thrust the rest of his length inside Mick then and placed his own hands on either side of the wall next to Mick's.

Making sure each part of his body made as much contact with Mick's as possible once again, Josef carefully withdrew and then thrust himself back into Mick's passage. He kept the length of his thrusts short, trying to keep maximum contact as Mick whimpered and began to thrust back onto Josef's cock.

"Feel me." Josef pressed his lips against the side of Mick's neck and whispered to him. "I'm here, with you, right now and I'm not going anywhere Mick. You have me for eternity."

Josef stepped up the pace of his movements in response to a sudden groan of pleasure from Mick. His hand reached down to grip Mick's cock once again as he stroked the length of Mick's hardness and urged him to completion.

They both came almost simultaneously, Josef only a few short paces behind Mick, panting and snarling with abandon as they spilled themselves into and over one other and sank their fangs into each other's flesh.

When they were both spent, Josef withdrew himself from Mick's body and then quickly wiped Mick's semen from his hand with the handkerchief from his suit coat pocket.

"Come on, let's leave this behind us." Josef smiled at Mick and extended his hand to him, pointedly dropping the soiled handkerchief on the spot where his blood had once been spilled at the same time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you coming to bed?" Josef stood up from his seat in Lestat's loungeroom and stretched.

"Yeah in a moment, soon." Mick smiled and took another sip of crimson liquid from the glass in his hand.

Mick watched as Josef moved over to him and bent down to kiss him goodnight. With another quick kiss and a whisper of "I love you" Josef turned and casually strode from the room, leaving Mick alone to ponder the details of a plan that had begun to formulate in his mind.

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Mick paused at the door of Lestat's bedroom for a moment and then drew in a breath and knocked, stifling a laugh when he heard Lestat's voice call out, "Come in if you're gorgeous."

"Well don't just stand there sugar." Lestat grinned at Mick hovering in the now open doorway of his room. "Come in. Nice to see you've got confidence in yourself by the way."

Lestat sat propped up by an array of gilded cushions on his overly decorative bed, rubbing scented cream over his hands and face. Mick shook his head and stifled another laugh before giving a polite nod and accepting Lestat's invitation.

"Why do you use that stuff?" Mick arched a quizzical eyebrow in Lestat's direction as he walked over and sat perched on the end of the bed. "It's not like we age or anything."

"I like the feel of it." Lestat shrugged and then extended a creamed hand towards Mick, "want some?"

"No thank you Lestat." Mick furrowed his brow and shook his head.

"Suit yourself, more for me." Lestat shrugged again and continued rubbing the cream over his face and hands, looking as if he were thoroughly enjoying the sensation. "So to what do I owe this pleasure then Mick?" He asked Mick then, taking a moment to quickly massage the remaining excess of lotion into his skin.

"I wanted to ask you something." Mick hesitated for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip thoughtfully. "Actually there's something else I want to ask you first."

"Sure honey, shoot." Lestat gave Mick an indulging smile and waited for him to speak.

"You and Josef," Mick looked down and scrubbed an embarrassed foot along the floor in front of him, "I was just wondering, have you ever…you know."

Lestat looked at Mick utterly bemused for a moment and then burst out laughing.

"Oh god no honey," Lestat spluttered, "Me and Josef, are you serious? He can be as much of a queen as I am when he wants to be, we'd kill each other." Lestat let out another burst of laugher and shook his head.

"Don't let Josef hear you calling him that." Mick grinned and then let out a snort of laughter himself.

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it." Lestat raised a knowing eyebrow. "I'm a little too fond of the idea that my head remains attached to my body."

"So what did you really come in here to ask me?" Lestat asked Mick then.

"I need a couple of suits made for me and Josef." Mick looked on as Lestat fumbled around in the drawer of the nightstand next to his bed and drew out a sketchpad and pencil.

"What did you have in mind?" Lestat's hand rested on the paper in front of him, pencil poised ready to draw.

Mick began to describe his ideas to Lestat and then paused mid sentence. Drawing in an excited breath he scurried along the mattress and propped himself up on the pillows beside Lestat before hurriedly outlining the rest of the details of the surprise he had planned for Josef.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Matching suits, how delightfully cliché Mick." Josef grinned and then adjusted the sleeves and collar of his shirt.

Two weeks had passed since the night Mick had sat on Lestat's bed and transcribed a vision of the event to come. One week later Lestat casually mentioned the idea of arranging a small gathering of close friends, with Josef and Mick as the guests of honour, as Josef sat across from him at the dining room table and sipped a glass of blood wine.

"I want to do something nice for the two of you, after all you've been through recently I mean." Lestat had told Josef with an indulgent smile, suppressing the urge to gush and reveal the secret he had been entrusted with when Josef had offered him his own polite smile and shrugged, "Sure, why not."

"Do you like them though?" Mick looked at Josef, standing in front of him now, with an anxious smile.

The suits were perfect; two elegantly cut dark charcoal and pinstripe specimens with matching deep purple shirts topped off with matching silver tie and purple pocket handkerchief accessories. Josef was impressed and he told Mick as much, in no uncertain terms, lavishing surprised praises on him for the quality of his efforts.

"I'm glad." Mick let out a relieved breath. "You look gorgeous in it of course."

Mick gave Josef an adoring look and then smiled when Josef answered. "You don't look so bad yourself Mick," and stepped forward to wrap his arms around Mick's neck.

"Come on my beloved." Josef tipped his face towards Mick's and placed an affectionate kiss on his lips. "We should hurry it along; we don't want to be late for Lestat's big event now do we."

Josef leaned back in Mick's arms and arched an eyebrow, then laughed and disentangled himself from Mick's embrace, offering Mick his hand to take instead.

"_No we certainly don't want to be late, Josef. Not for what I've got in store for us at least._" Mick smiled to himself knowingly and then accepted Josef's proffered hand in his.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Lestat's certainly gone to a lot of effort." Josef surveyed the garden scene in front of him.

No detail had been left to chance. From the colour of the napkins, to the fine silver candelabras that took centre place on the two trestles either side of the lawn setting, everything was refined to perfection.

"Come on." Mick smiled and placed a hand on Josef's arm. "Katherine's here, let's go say hello."

Attired in shades of red and purple, with the occasional splash of black or silver, guests, some of whom were old friends Josef hadn't laid eyes on in some years, milled around sipping a variety of rare blood types poured from crystal decanters.

Standing off to one side in the midst of the hustle and bustle of colour coordinated activity, Katherine stepped forward and greeted Josef fondly when she saw him approach arm in arm with Mick.

Dressed in a floor length satin gown, the colour of which matched the suit shirts that Mick and Josef wore, she was the very vision of ice blonde vampire elegance.

"You look lovely." Josef let go of Mick's arm and took Katherine by the hands, stepping back and holding her out in front of him whilst he admired his handiwork.

"Thank you." Katherine smiled graciously and then arched an indulgent eyebrow and added, "You two don't scrub up too badly yourselves."

"Thanks, I think?" Josef laughed and then turned to survey the setting laid out in front of him once more. "Well Lestat certainly wasn't joking when he said he wanted us to be guests of honour." He commented to Katherine as he draped an arm around Mick's neck and absentmindedly brushed his fingers through strands of hair at the base of Mick's skull.

Katherine and Mick exchanged glances then. Mick nodded a quick instruction to Katherine and then watched as Katherine made her excuses to leave and started to walk away, towards the small building at the back of the garden.

"Mick, what's going on?" Josef furrowed his brow and pursed his lips, head tilted to one side as he regarded Mick with a quizzical expression.

"You'll find out. I have a surprise planned for you." Mick couldn't suppress the grin on his face as he leant over to plant an affectionate kiss on the side of Josef's face.

Katherine returned a few moments late, a spray of blood red orchids in hand. A familiar face followed close behind.

Josef watched as Father Patrick took position at the head of the line of guests that had formed on either side. Realisation began to dawn on Josef then as Katherine made her way over to where her sire and his lover stood.

"Josef." Mick waited until the guests had assumed their final positions and then dropped to one knee, taking Josef's hand in his. "Will you marry me?" Mick laughed and then added the word. "Again."

"Right now?" Josef pretended to look incredulous, "I haven't even had a chance to mingle with our guests yet."

Josef looked down at Mick's face, eyes wide and expression fallen. Unable to suppress the grin that formed on his lips he pulled Mick to his feet.

"Mick you idiot, I'm joking." Josef laughed and shook his head, then smiled at Mick and said simply, "I married you once didn't I?"

Mick laughed in reply and nodded a sheepish agreement, then felt Josef's hand in his as Josef muttered a hurried "Come with me" and began to pull him away from the gathering.

"You're supposed to wait until after the ceremony." Lestat called out after their retreating forms, prompting Josef to turn heel and shoot back a smirking reply of "Shut up Leonard," emphasising the pointed use of Lestat's real name.

Back inside in the guest bedroom they had shared for the past weeks, Josef rummaged through a pocket section of his suitcase and drew out two small velvet boxes. He handed one to Mick and instructed him to, "Open it."

"Are these real?" Mick drew in an astonished breath as he regarded the handcrafted Celtic knotwork ring inlaid with what looked like diamonds in his hand.

"Of course they're real." Josef huffed indignantly and then paused to trace the back of his hand along the side of Mick's face and added gently, "Forged in the fires of hell."

"Just like us recently." Mick's expression fell serious. He swallowed back a lump of emotion and then placed the ring on his finger. "You know I really don't know why we didn't just use the rings we already had in Ireland?" He remarked, admiring the way the ring perfectly with the engagement ring he already wore.

"I suppose we were in too much of a hurry to be married to take note of things like that, Mick." Josef replied and inspected the ring on Mick's hand.

"Let's do it properly this time." Josef heard Mick say to him then and he knew Mick meant more than just the wedding ceremony.

"We will." Josef looked at Mick in earnest and then nodded his assurance.

Instructing Mick then to take the ring off and place it back in it's velvet holder, Josef draped an arm around Mick's waist and began to lead the both of them back outside to where Father Patrick and the rest of their guests awaited them.

Katherine stood to one side, pausing every now and then to wipe the back of her hand across her eyes and trying not to sniff too loudly, as she watched the two vampires she had come to regard as closer than family, take their positions in front of Father Patrick.

"Ready?" Father Patrick arched a questioning eyebrow.

"As we'll ever be." Josef laughed and drew his arm tighter around Mick's waist.

"Then let's begin."

Father Patrick drew a breath and then started the ceremony with a pointed smile in Josef's direction as he spoke the first words.

_"Immortal Beloved…"_


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Josef, what are you doing?" Mick leant back in Josef's arms and furrowed his brow, as they danced together and he heard Josef begin to sing the words "it's a wonderful night for a Moondance", under his breath.

"What?" Josef wore a bemused expression, head tilted and eyebrows cocked, "I'm serenading you. Don't you remember? It was the song they were playing when I first proposed to you."

"I remember." Mick laughed and then arched an eyebrow in Josef's direction. "But you can't sing."

"Mick." Josef shook his head and looked skyward.

"What, shut up?"

"No." Josef smiled at Mick affectionately. "Keep talking, I like the sound of your voice. I could listen to it for eternity."

"Eternity?" Mick pressed his lips against Josef's ear and whispered to him. "Is that a threat or a promise."

"Both."

Josef smiled once more and then drew Mick back into his embrace.

**The End.**


End file.
